Only Human
by pline
Summary: FE:SS, Magvel, modern day. She was good for killing but nothing else. He was good at making her realize otherwise. Undergoing a complete revamp!
1. The Definition of a Human

**Starting A/N: **A new concept, striding away from the Medieval era and into the 21st century! Ha... Yeah, hopefully you readers will enjoy this.

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Definition of a 'Human'**

"Marisa," Saleh's voice sounded over her earpiece. "To your left are the security guards."

She eyed the two security guards carefully, taking notice of their big stature. They were as any standard bodyguards should be; muscles, muscles and more muscles. They both wore black tuxedo suits and black sunglasses to hide their observant eyes. Despite their overall appearance, they didn't intimidate Marisa as she knew size didn't matter.

She stood by the reception desk as people hurried past her to get to their rooms and check in. She had occupied herself in reading a pamphlet of the hotel she was currently in, only that she was glancing at the security guards every second word or so.

She did not need to know of the hotel's glamorous decor and ancient history; Saleh did his job to inform of her of that.

"C'mon Rennac, how long does it take to kill one person? A girl no less," Colm's voice whined through her earpiece.

"Hey now, one does not simply _assassinate _a person," Gerik responded in his usual laid back tone. Marisa could almost hear the others' eyes roll in response to the emphasized word in his sentence.

He always liked to use the, in his words, "proper termination" for just what they did.

Being the boss of an assassination company, Marisa had always thought Gerik didn't take his role too seriously. Of course, she learned this particular role wasn't his first choice. 'The Company', the name of their little group, was a family business started long ago by Gerik's ancestors. After his father's passing, it was written in his will for Gerik to take over. He was hesitant at first, but because of a sense of obligation and "keeping tradition", he complied.

It turned out Gerik wasn't too bad at his job: he mostly handled the finances, phone calls, information distribution and monitoring, rarely would he come out on a mission.

"I can't see anything from here. the curtains are in the way!" Exclaimed Neimi. Her job as a sniper was not only to take out people below with her trusted rifle, but to spy down below from high rise buildings.

"Rennac?" Gerik called out.

There was no answer.

"Marisa, go check up on him." He ordered with a bit of urgency in his voice.

"Kay," Marisa responded softly into her microphone, which was a small device planted in her mouth in the shape of a molar. She carried with her a brown messenger bag, which hid her weapon of choice: twin daggers, the very same daggers she had used to slain many others before.

On any particular mission, a target is assigned to one person in The Company, and as one of The Company's few rules:

**Always bring an accomplice.**

Whether to assist you on a mission and be a lookout.

Who else better for Rennac to choose than Marisa? Although there were no official track records, everyone knew she was the best in their little group. She had been in The Company the longest (besides Gerik) and she had a flawless record. It was no doubt to Rennac and the others that she was paid the most, and although money was not a big issue to some of them, they had suspected Gerik and her had a romantic relationship, therefore he favoured her more. That wasn't the case at all as Marisa kept her work strictly professional and she knew it was Tethys that Gerik favoured more.

Tethys. The lethal beauty as everyone liked to call her. She worked mostly undercover from a waitress to an exotic dancer or the all too well "pretty lady." Her style was interesting; she would lure the target in, obtaining alone time with them and then offer them "the drink". The drink would be poisoned with deadly sedatives composed by Knoll. It was perfect, the job would be done and no one would discover the body only till morning after.

Someone like Tethys would be better off with a normal career; she was outgoing, insightful and beautiful. But because the only family she had was her younger brother, Ewan (who had no idea what his big sister does), naturally she would want the best and finest for him and doing what she does now would be the fastest and easiest way to accomplish just that.

Only the best was recruited into the company, but Rennac was easily deemed as a lazy and self centered person. He was also what Marisa considered a long-time friend. A couple of months after Marisa joined 5 years ago, Rennac was recruited. He was a professional in pick-pocketing, lock-picking, stealing, and anything to do with deceiving _and_ receiving. Amongst all that, he was also an assassin, not as good as Marisa, but he always got the job done. Rennac quite enjoyed this career because of the easy money and the casual schedule.

He was the only person Marisa knew who stayed the longest in The Company besides her. The Company mostly served to contract work: freelance assassins came to Gerik to look for work and they only worked for a certain amount of time. People always came and go except for her and Rennac, Gerik made an exception for them as Marisa was quite skilled and Rennac was… Well, whatever Gerik saw in him, he wanted him to stay.

Another one of The Company's rules:

**Never kill anyone other than the target, unless they pose a threat.**

It had never come to that for Marisa. All of her targets were slain swiftly and silently, the same can't be said for the others though.

There was an incident involving Colm, another of The Company, where he was assigned to assassinate the head leader of a drug dealing group. He ended up blowing up their warehouse along with the many members of the group. In his defense, Colm was only best at espionage work. Since the incident, Gerik only assigned easy targets to him.

Where there was Colm, there was Neimi, his childhood friend and whose father had adopted him when he was young orphan. Coincidently, her father was at one time an assassin for The Company. When he killed in an accident years ago, Colm decided to take his place. Neimi protested greatly against the decision, but no amount of tears could have changed his mind, so Neimi joined at first to solely watch over Colm. That gradually transitioned to becoming an assassin as she was not a bad shot with a gun and no one would have guessed a kind, sensitive person like herself would be an assassin.

The last rule of The Company was:

**Never question why.**

That is, never question why the target was being targeted. Gerik, being the boss would knew why. Along with Saleh, who researched everything that has to do with the target of the mission. Everything from when they were born to where they were going in the future. It had always astonished Marisa how quickly he was able to research such information in day's span. His quickest, an hour.

Saleh was Gerik's colleague, who was offered the position as a researcher years after Marisa joined. Little did he know, it was for an assassin company, but because of their long lasting friendship, Saleh ended up joining. His researching job slowly transitioned to the mission's organizer and head of anything technical. Although he wasn't an assassin himself, it was obvious he was the hardest working person in the company.

Along with Saleh, there was Knoll, another colleague of both Gerik and Saleh. Like Saleh, when he offered a position on the company, he had no idea it was in the "killing" business. He was a timid man compared to the other men in the company, so he was more reluctant at first than Saleh was. Fortunately, because he was a quiet man, Gerik and Saleh were able to persuade him. Knoll assisted Saleh in all the technical area. He build and constructed most of the company's devices, weapons and chemicals such as their ear and mouth pieces, bombs, spy cameras, and sedatives.

Although in some missions, there would be obvious signs as to why why a person was to be assassinated. They have come across criminals, gang leaders, cheaters, business competition and jealousy, even innocent ones. It was better they did not know why people had to be killed, otherwise sympathy or personal sentimental beliefs would get in the way of getting the job done.

Simply put, your job goes before your emotions, conscious and values.

"Room card?" asked one of the security guard in a deep gravelling voice.

Marisa took out the card she had swiped from the front desk and showed it to them.

The two men nodded at her to signal she was good to pass through.

"Remember, it's on the 6th floor, take the elevator." Saleh informed.

"I know." Marisa murmured as she walked through the lavishing marble halls of the hotel. She came to the empty elevator lobby and pushed the up button. She waited for an elevator to come and when it finally did, in there was Rennac. He appeared in his usual appeal of a brown leather jacket, underneath, a black hoodie and a pair of dark skinny jeans cuffed into black boots.

"Hey," he greeted casually as he stepped out.

"Done?" She asked.

"Yeap, let's go." He tugged at her arm.

"Why didn't you respond before?"

"Hm, I don't know. Maybe it's because I was in the middle of _something_," Rennac responded with great sarcasm that had always irritated Marisa. "Now let's go," he gritted the last three words through his teeth. She could tell he was in a hurry and she couldn't blame him, he had just assassinated a princess.

There was a loud rumble heard above them followed by a small quake. Marisa put two and two together and realized he had just set off a bomb.

"You-!" Marisa began but was cutted off by Rennac as he grabbed her arm.

"C'mon, through the back exit!" He ran down the hall to an emergency exit door.

"Cormag, pick us up in the back alley." Rennac ordered as Marisa quickly followed behind him.

"Gotcha." Cormag responded.

Their heavy boots pounded against the marble floor and pavement as they got outside. Surely enough, the white van was there.

The door was opened by Colm inside.

"Get in!" He shouted over the heavy rain. Rennac and Marisa rushed their way into the van. Once they got in, Cormag stepped on the gas pedal and sped out the alley and out onto the busy streets on Renais.

"Why the hell did you set an explosion?" Saleh shouted from the passenger seat, a laptop on his lap, which screened several camera footages from within the hotel.

In the driver seat, was Cormag. In the back of the van was a bolted table, with several other computers and laptops, seated in front was Knoll. Across from the table sat Colm and Neimi. It had always baffled Marisa how quickly Neimi is able to grapple down a building in seconds. From where she was positioned only 5 minutes before, it was the 20nd floor of a nearby building.

"A bomb wasn't in the plan," Saleh began to scold.

"Hey," Rennac said casually as he sat beside Colm and ran a hand through his damped brown hair. "That L'Arachel was a fussy one. Along with that body guard, Dolza. I had no choice," He merely shrugged.

"Well, you couldn't have done it in a less attracting way?" Colm asked annoyingly as three police cruisers whizzed by them.

"Don't worry, I cleaned up after myself. I've set it off so it looked like a gas leak or something," Rennac responded.

"Rennac... I've designed that explosion to set off for several people. Not just two," Knoll commented quietly as he turned around in his chair.

"Their suite was huge! No one was harm, I bet." Rennac countered.

"Alright, alright, what matters is it's done. Let's go home now," Cormag interjected. He was always the peacemaker whenever there was tension amongst the group. That tension, mostly centered around Rennac.

Lastly in Gerik's company, was Cormag, their transporter. Before he joined, he did some illegal car racing on the streets of Elibe. His winning streaks caught the attention of Gerik and he was quickly recruited for a long term service. He was also trained in properly using an armed weapon and has done minor assassinating jobs. Marisa didn't know much about the man as he was recruited recently except that he was very interested in cars. He had managed to persuade Marisa in purchasing a Porshe or whatever it was called, though Marisa hardly drove it.

The group rode in silence for a while before Knoll's cell phone rang.

"Hello? Oh yes." He switched it to speakerphone.

"Hey." It was Gerik. "So uh, good job. Except, Rennac..."

"Oh brother." Rennac sighed in disbelief as he knew what the boss had to say.

"Next time, try to not bring so much attention. Detectives are gonna be on the scene like bees to a hive. Haha!"

The group remained silent, apathetic to his joke.

"What? I thought that was pretty funny... Ahem, anyways. The money's been distributed into your bank accounts. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

The group drove silently as they removed their ear and mouth pieces, and any wire on them.

"Alright, Marisa's place." Cormag announced as he halted the car to a stop. Marisa got up, and swung her bag over her shoulder as she slid the van door open.

"Bye Marisa!" Cried the group.

"See ya." She jumped out of the van and slammed the door shut. She watched as the van drove away.

Marisa let out a sigh as she looked up at the building of her apartment, rain splattering on her face as she gazed. She then looked down at the watch she wore on her right wrist.

11:37 pm.

Like after every mission, she headed over to the pub across from her apartment. She looked both ways for incoming traffic before she dashed across the street. As she entered the pub, she shook her head to dry her long lavishing pink hair. After she did, she made her way to the usual stool she always sat at.

Dumping her bag to the stool nearby, she met eyes with the bartender, and nodded her head at him while tapping her finger on the counter.

She waited for the old man to fill the glass up with beer. While she waited, she gazed around the room. The pub never had too many people. There were usually people like her; drinking away to themselves, and occasionally a group of people playing a game of pool. But other than that, it was a quiet place.

But Marisa didn't mind, she preferred this place to ones at those up beat bars. She didn't like human interaction too much.

The bartender, named Sid, walked over to her and placed the mug of beer down. "Long day again?" He asked as he wiped at the counter with a ragged cloth.

"Hm," was all Marisa said as she raised the mug to her lips.

Because Marisa frequently visited the place, she got to know the old bartender, about how his family used to run the place and how it used to be the "it" place back in the day. But now, nicely put, it wasn't doing well.

But in turn, Marisa had to make up lies about herself to the man. He believed she was a teacher at an all exclusive private school for the gifted. Even though it was a lie, Marisa laughed at this. She could never imagine herself working with children and quite frankly, no one could as well.

Her relationship with Sid was pretty distant: they didn't talk all too much but both didn't mind. After a simple greeting, he would leave her alone.

This was her life.

After finishing up a mission, she would come down to the pub to unwind herself with a glass of beer. It was her way of reflecting on her day. Not too many people can sit down and reminiscent back on killing a human being. That would make them cruel, sadistic, cold-hearted... Almost not human.

Marisa pressed her lips tightly together at the thought.

She didn't feel any different from everyone else other than the fact that she killed, no, _assassinated _for a living.

But what separated her from everyone else in the Company was that they had other goals and plans.

Saleh and Knoll worked daytime as college professors who only joined 2 years ago. Neimi attended the very same college in the architectural program (her many scaling alongside buildings had inspired her to go into architecture). Colm even enrolled himself in a computer science class Saleh taught because of interest and because Saleh would have to give him free marks to burden him with schoolwork while he worked on missions. Both, to Marisa's knowledge were only in The Company for 2 years with their first year coming up. Cormag worked as a car mechanic and had been with them for half a year, and Tethys worked part time as a waitress. She was a contract worker with more year left of her three years.

When they weren't working in The Company, they were living out normal lives, even the permanent workers, Saleh, Knoll and Cormag.

What did Marisa do? Nothing.

Though, she couldn't speak for Gerik, it seemed like he would be running The Company for a long time, unless he had someone in his family who wanted to take over. But he was always so cheerful about it his job. And Rennac did nothing all day, but lounge around in his mansion, flaunt his money and hook up with multiple women.

It seemed like her and Rennac were the only ones without a bright future ahead of them, though Rennac didn't seem to mind.

Hardly did Marisa ever show it, she was scared.

Marisa had more money in her account than everyone else. She could easily quit and live a normal life... Easier said than done.

She knew she was good at what she did and not much else. The process was proven in various situations from working a computer to cooking a basic meal. She nearly burned her apartment down. Even with the help from her fellow co-workers, it seemed she incompetent in some of everyday basic activities.

She wanted to try something new and different, but such a thing required time and energy and a lot of energy at that.

Marisa sighed heavily as she ran her fingers through her damped hair.

"_I can't be thinking like this," _she thought as she sipped on her cool beer.

On a much positive note, Marisa knew one thing: despite being an assassin, she was still human. She still ate, drank, breathed, and clothed like a normal person.

And that was all it took to be considered a human being.

Right?


	2. A Royal Pain

**Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Fire Emblem**

Enjoy!

**A Royal Pain**

_Marisa eyed the man as he came in through the front door. The man didn't bother to turn on any lights in the darkened house as he slipped his shoes and jacket off. Her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness half an hour ago and saw the outline of the man's figure headed her way. She slipped to the right and pushed herself against the wall holding her breath._

_The man didn't notice her. _

_She glared into the back of his head as he walked past her. _

_He still didn't notice her. _

_Marisa raised the dagger in her left hand up, ready to strike down on the clueless man. She stalked behind him, nearing closer and closer. _

_The ginormous living window, which was once pitch black, glowed a brilliant shade of blue. It was lightning. _

_Unfortunately, the man caught sight of the intruder in the reflection of the window._

_He let out a loud shout as he quickly turned around. The room turned dark again and there was shuffling of sounds followed by the crash of thunder._

_Another flash of lightning struck and the room was filled with the brilliant shade of blue. _

_Marisa was on top of the man; his arms were held down on his back with her right knee as she knelt on the man. His left leg pulled as far back backwards in her right hand. Her dagger was held to the man's throat._

_"Pl-please! Whoever is paying you, I'll pay you double!" Begged the man._

_"You don't know who I am...?" Marisa asked, mostly to herself._

_"Of course I don't!" He shouted. His shouting made him squirm underneath her and Marisa knelt down harder on the man's hands, which made a sickening snapping and crackling sound. The man let out a bloodcurdling scream._

_"H-Hey now... What about triple the money? And I won't get the cops on you. Oh-okay?" The man whimpered. _

_No amount of money was going to stop Marisa from what she was doing. _

_"Nuh uh." She said just as another crash of thunder boomed. _

_"What about..." Even though her knee was on his back, she could feel the fast paced pulsing of his heart beating. "Ten times the money? Just let me go... Please." Pleaded the man._

_Marisa lifted her lips up into a smirk. She found it entertaining for him to beg. _

_Then, with all her might, she pulled his leg as far back as she could. It sounded like a pop as the leg dislocated itself out of the hip socket and then the man let out another pain striking scream. Marisa got up from the man, knowing he was now immobilized. _

_Lighting shown in the room once more and Marisa watched the man try to crawl away for a good 5 seconds. She saw that he was heading to the phone._

_She walked over to him and kicked in in the side, making him flip over to his back. The man let out a groan. She bent down towards him._

_"They say lightning is faster than sound." The man continued to moan and groan at his pain. "Let's see how fast I can kill you before you let out a final scream."_

_"Wh-why?" The man softly let out. "Why are you doing this...?"_

_There was another crash of thunder followed soon by a final struck of lightning. _

_"Because you killed my father."_

_The man got one final glimpse of his assailant before she made a quick slash to his throat._

_The man shortly died before he could let out a final scream._

*Buzz*Buzz*

Marisa shot up from her bed and looked around the room.

*Buzz*Buzz

She reached out to her bed dresser and picked up the vibrating phone. She flipped it open and answered.

"Hello?" She answered groggily as she wiped the crust from her eyes.

"Hey Marisa!" Gerik greeted cheerfully. "Wanna come down here? I have an assignment for ya."

"Sure."

"'Kay, see ya." She snapped the phone shut and looked at the time that read on the front of the phone.

10:56 am.

She yawned nosily as she kicked herself out of her queen sized mattress bed. She crossed the living room of her apartment to get to the bathroom.

Her apartment was small, but standard. Two bedrooms, both medium sized, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. She could very well upgrade to probably a mansion larger than Gerik's, but she saved herself from having to fill paperworks, documents, browsing for a house and of course, arranging meetings with realtor agents and bankers. Besides, this was where she grew up, and she was comfortable with the place.

After Marisa washed her face, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair, she went out to the kitchen to make herself a simple breakfast. She opened the top cabinet in her kitchen to reveal its almost empty components; an open box of Cheerios, 5 boxes of macaroni and cheese, and a couple of cans of soup.

She wasn't much of a cooker, so she lived off of canned and boxed food as well as takeout food.

Making a mental note to remind herself to buy more food, she took the box of cereal out and poured it into a bowl.

Like her cabinet, her refrigerator lacked food. All that was in there was a jug of milk, jar of pickles, orange juice, and a packet of moldy bologna. Marisa merely shrugged as she took the milk out and poured it into her bowl of cereal.

She made her way to the living room and sat herself down on the red leather couch. She took the remote control in her hand, the other holding the bowl of cereal and flipped through the channels on her 50 inch high definition television.

Another item her money was splurged on, but Marisa didn't mind, she had to waste the money that was sitting in her bank account. It was a shame though, to have so much money to flaunt, but nothing to flaunt it on. The only time she needed to use her money was to buy groceries, gas for her car (which was probably only every other 6 months due to her lack of driving it), a few clothes, personal hygiene and of course, weapons.

The amount of money she spend on weapons was probably more she spent on anything else combined.

_"...Investigators found the hotel suite a charred mess. L'Arachel, princess of the country, Rausten, and her personal bodyguard since her birth, died in the explosion_. _The explosion was big enough to have disintegrated both bodies. The two came to Renais to promote Princess L'Arachel's new book, "The Divine and Holy Right." Many of the hotel guests smelt gas hours before the explosion and investigators now speculate the explosion was caused by a possible gas leak... Many are mourning over her death and a funeral is to be held sometime soon..."_

"Huh," Marisa grunted. Rennac actually cleaned up after himself. For once.

After she ate breakfast, she went to her room the change. Nothing out of the ordinary; just her usual outfit which consisted of a black tank top with a dark brown leather jacket on top, and a pair of calf high studded leather boots with her pair of dark jeans cut-off tucked into it.

She went out of her apartment and found her neighbor, Sam, in the hallway, locking up his door.

"Oh, hey Marisa!" He chirped.

_Oh no._

Sam was a young dashing man who moved in next to her a few years back. She knew that he attended an athletic college nearby in hopes of becoming a professional basketball player_. _It wasn't his overly genuine personality that made Marisa suspect he had a crush on her, but because he always subtly asked her out through their conversations.

"Heading out to teach, eh?" He asked as he swung his gym bag over his shoulder.

Marisa shrugged. "Yeah."

"So... I guess we'll go down together. I mean, down the elevator." He laughed nervously.

Sam was a good looking guy; tall, shiny brown hair, kind, smart, always wore a cheerful smile, but not too well with the ladies. Or at least just Marisa. Maybe, just _maybe, _she would consider him as a potential boyfriend if she didn't lead the life she led.

Marisa didn't say anything to him but led the way down the hallway.

They walked in silence as their shoes shuffled along the carpet.

They waited for the elevator to come.

"Hmm, you know what bothers me?" Sam asked.

"What?"

"You and I are the same age, right?"

Marisa nodded. She was 20 and he was 20.

"So how is it that I'm in school, and you're already a teacher?"

No one had asked her that before. She looked off to the side to think of an excuse.

"Er, well, I don't mean to pry on your case! I was just wondering, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He again, chuckled nervously.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened, the two scurried inside. Once they got inside, they were quiet again.

_Dodged one there..._

They both lived on the 26nd floor of their 30 floor apartment, so it was a long way down.

"So, where are you heading?" Marisa asked. she figured she might as well strike up a conversation while they waited.

"Oh!" Exclaimed Sam, a bit surprised Marisa had said something. "Uh, heading to school. Gotta practice," he shot a cheerful smile as he held his basketball up. "We have a game tonight... So you should come..."

"Hm?"

"You know, to watch? And cheer the team on? Maybe we'll actually win this time, haha!" He joked.

She felt sorry for him. Even though she had turned him down every time he asked her out, he still continued to ask. When was he going to stop bothering her?

"Sorry. Gotta work late tonight," Marisa replied bluntly.

"Oh..." He pouted slightly as a disappointed expression wore in his face.

Finally they arrived to the main floor, where Sam had to get off.

"See ya," she called.

"Uh, bye," he bowed slightly to her as he walked off.

After the elevator doors closed, Marisa sighed in relief. Being around him always tensed her up. Actually, being around anyone had the same effect.

The elevator arrived to the basement, where all the cars were held. She reached in her bag to pull out her car keys. Her car beeped after she pressed the button. She climbed into the driver's seat as she threw her bag onto the passenger seat next to her.

Even though she had the car for 2 years now, it still had that new car smell. She adjusted the rear view mirror and caught sight of herself in the reflection.

Her expression was hard, cold and basically a blank stare. She had never considered herself pretty, decent looking perhaps, but never pretty. Her complexion was sickly pale, lips always drawn in a tight forming life, eyebrows knitted in a furrow and her eyes... Her pupils seemed to have lost its magenta coloring and was a dark void of nothingness. As if it read it did not care for anything in the world, as if it were not impressed with what the sights the majestic world had to offer.

Of course, the images she had seen were far greatly from majestic. The actions she had committed were nowhere majestic.

She had seen what no mankind wanted to see and yet her eyes were still not impressed.

Marisa pulled up in the driveway of Gerik's colossal mansion. She recognized the bright yellow sports car as Rennac's and the black Lamborghini as Tethys'.

Because Gerik's office was in the comfort of his home, he thought to make his mansion The Company's headquarters. Saleh and Knoll also had their own office in the home so they figured it was easier to move in.

Gerik, being easy going and trusting, gave each member of The Company had their own key to the mansion. Of course, those who left would have to return their key. Marisa suspected that one day his casual nature will get him into trouble.

The other members of The Company would sometimes crash in the mansion after a long hard day, but other than that, everyone else had their own individual place.

Cormag lived in a mansion, same community as Gerik. But he renovated the place to add several garages for his prized cars. And he had a lot of cars.

Neimi and Colm lived in a high classed apartment that they were raised in by their father. For the same reasons as Marisa, they chose not to upgrade to a better home.

Tethys lived in a middle classed home; standard living room and kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and a 2 car garage. Marisa had met Ewan before when Tethys had asked her to look after him one time. He was an intelligent kid and attended a private school. If her lie about her being a school teacher was true, she would probably be teaching Ewan. But Marisa found it odd that for a smart kid, why didn't he question how his part time waitress sister was able to afford a Lamborghini, a wardrobe full of designer clothes for him and her, and send Ewan to an expensive private school?

Marisa merely shrugged off the thought, as long as he didn't ask her why.

And Rennac also lived in a mansion nearby. He didn't spend much time in there, only when brought girls home or was hungover from a night of partying.

"Ah, hey Marisa," Gerik greeted as she sat herself down in the leather armchair. Beside the armchair was Rennac, who laid himself across the couch reading what Marisa could see, a _Playdude _magazine. Behind them, was Knoll, furiously marking away at his students' assignments and tests at his desk.

As Gerik walked over to hand Marisa the binder, his fuzzy slippers scrapped against the granite floor. Since their headquarters was held in his home, he was always in a pair of sweatpants, his slippers, and a white muscle shirt. His muscles in his arm flexed as he handed off the white binder to her. For a guy who wasn't part of the action much, he was unnaturally buff.

Marisa opened the binder, the first page stated the target.

_Joshua Ladoe, King of Jehanna._

_Age: 21_

_Description: 6 foot 1 inch. Red hair. Red eyes._

And so on. At the bottom included a picture of him from a newspaper article dated earlier this year.

"A King?" Marisa asked as she flipped through the 30 pages or so of the binder.

Without having to read the thick paged document, what she already knew about the King was he was notoriously known to be a troubled person back in his teenage years. He was enrolled in the most prestigious and expensive school but spent his time skipping classes, hanging with the wrong crowd, partying, under bad influence and gambling. He had made a number of newspaper headlines for his behaviour.

Where there were pleasant princes and princesses, there was Joshua: everything opposite of how Royalty should act. But where his manners lacked, his looks made up for it. Millions of girls across Magvel were swoon by him. Admittedly, Marisa had come to thought he was quite dashing at one point.

His only parent, his mother, Queen Ishamire had a whole county to reign by herself and with little to no time to spend even one breakfast with her son, Joshua continued to misbehave.

Until a tragic event that occurred three years ago. The lovely Queen Ishamire fell from a heart attack and shortly after that Joshua disappeared, only to have re-emerged earlier this year as a changed man.

Many were unsure what happened to him those three years of absence, Jehanna was watched over the careful eye by neighbouring country Rausten until Joshua emerged from hiding. Many speculate his mother's death was a turning point for the troubled Prince. With a whole country to look after by himself, it was thought he checked himself into a rehabilitation center to straighten himself out.

Of course, that was a rumour, though it would make sense for his absence. So far, his whole persona seemed to have changed based on early interviews and appearances in the media. At the moment, the whole continent was excited and waiting to see what the changed man has to offer as King.

"Yeap. We're on a roll; yesterday a Princess, today a King," Gerik said as he stretched his arms upwards.

"What?" Rennac shot up from the couch. "Why didn't you give this one to me? I mean, I _did _get the job done yesterday," Rennac gleamed.

"Hm, yeah. But not in the most promising way. Besides, I only gave you that assignment because Marisa wasn't available at the time, otherwise she would have done it more discretely." Gerik frowned at him as he stroke his goat tee. "Anyway Marisa. He's in town for a long time. Take your time and tell me when you're ready," he said before he walked off.

"So who you gonna bring?" Rennac asked.

Marisa shrugged. "I'm still reading."

"Y'know, I was thinking. Since I brought you along yesterday and well, all of the other missions I went on, I figured maybe you should bring me?" He forced a smile at her.

Marisa glared at him. "No. Now leave me alone."

Rennac pouted and laid back down on the couch. "Hmph, this is what I get for a being a friend, huh?" He grumbled to himself as he resumed 'reading' his magazine.

Moments later, the clicking of Tethys high heels were heard as she sat herself down on the opposing armchair from Marisa. Her sweet smelling perfume filled the lavishing living room.

"Hey Marisa, heard about your big assignment. Thought of who you're going to bring?" Tethys asked.

Marisa shook her head as she looked up at Tethys. "No, not yet."

Tethys wore a fur vest over top a white long sleeved shirt, her blue designer jeans fitted her legs perfectly, and her silver stiletto wore dangerously high.

"I bet you she's going to go solo again and hog the money all to herself." Rennac shot out from behind his magazine.

Marisa rolled her eyes.

It's true that one of Gerik's company stated that you have to always bring an accomplice, but this didn't apply to Marisa. She mostly went solo. Although everyone else were professionals in their own area, Marisa believed they would get in her way. No one else dared to go off on their own because they weren't necessarily skilled and experienced as her. Also, Gerik didn't mind because Marisa always got the job done quickly and quietly.

It's also true that whoever was part of the mission would get paid. Since Marisa always went on her own, she thought it would be fair to distribute the money fairly to everyone else whenever she went solo. Of course some people were unaware of her generosity.

And there was a saying: The higher the status, the higher the money. Of course everyone is going to want to be part of this particular mission.

"Stop patronizing her, Rennac," Tethys scolded. "Well, if you've made up your mind, you know where to find me," Tethys smiled as she got up and walked away.

Marisa had already made up her mind.

She was going to go solo.

He would be arriving soon.

Marisa glanced down at her watch.

9:34 pm.

According to Saleh's research, Joshua was supposed to arrive at his hotel room at 9:40.

Marisa got ready; she changed into her black skin suit and black slippers. These clothes were to minimize the noise she'd make when she moved around. She slipped on her pair of black gloves so she doesn't leave behind fingerprints. She tied one her daggers to the belt around her waist and lastly, she slipped on her black ski mask that covered everything but her eyes to see what she was doing.

The hotel went full well to her advantage; its ceilings were tiled and anyone could slip into it.

Marisa wondered for a wealthy King, why couldn't he have rented a room in a nicer hotel? The hotel he chose to stay at was shabby, dirty and old.

Hours before, Marisa had swiped the key to the room across from where King Joshua would be staying in.

She would have to move now if she wanted to get the deed done quickly. She stood on the desk against the wall and lifted a tile of the ceiling up. If she was careful, she would step on the right ones and not fall through.

Marisa took out a small flashlight and turned it on. She looked around the dark area. The distance from the ceiling and the floor above her was too tiny to stand around and walk. She would have to crawl.

She lifted ski mask up so she could place the flashlight in her mouth.

Successfully she made it across to the room. She placed an ear against of the tile to listen for movements. After confirming there was nobody in the room, she lifted up the tile and landed on two feet as she jumped down.

Marisa looked at her watch again.

9:39 pm.

Seconds later, she heard voices in the hallway.

"... Sire, before you enter the room, we will have to search it for wires and bugs," said a voice with a serious tone to it.

_What? _

Marisa looked frantically around. It wasn't in the research that he was going to be with anyone. But she should've guessed he would have bodyguards of some sort.

She knew she wouldn't have time to slip back up in the ceiling so she ran to hide in the dark bathroom.

She guessed she would have to kill the bodyguard as well.

The sound of the doorknob clicking and the door opening was heard. The lights clicked on and Marisa caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Staring back was her dark unimpressed eyes.

She couldn't help but wonder if this was the same expression used when she took a person's life.

For someone's last glimpse at life to be a pair of remorselessness eyes... Just wasn't-

She quickly blinked and looked away. She was startled to hear another voice.

"You guys, I rented out such a shabby place because no one would expect someone like me to come here. I doubt there are any wires or such in here," Said a different voice, most likely to belong to the King. "And besides, I know Forde here would like a good sleep after a long day."

"*Yawn*, yeah I actually could," Said a third and tired voice. So there were two bodyguards.

"But Sire-"

"Kyle, you're always so serious. Go get a good night rest, okay?"

There was a moment of silence followed by a shuffle of footsteps and the door opening and closing.

Marisa felt her heart beat slowing down.

_Too close..._

This was the first Saleh ever left out a piece of information. When she gets back, she would have to scold him about this.

Marisa heard the sound of a bag zipping and figured that King Joshua was unpacking his things.

There was chance he was facing the bathroom door, and from what she could hear, their distance between each other would give the King some time to defend himself.

She slowly poked her head out the door.

Luckily, his back was to her so she began to crept out the bathroom.

He seemed completely unaware of her existence as she crept closer and closer. Finally, she was just inches away from him.

How would she execute this perfectly? If she wanted to go about her usual style, she would have to swiftly get the dagger to his throat and slice it. But he was a tall man, at 6'1 and she was only 5'6.

She would have to take her chances. She held the dagger horizontally in her left hand as she inched to reach it around him.

Suddenly, Joshua whipped around and took her daggered arm in his hands. Surprised, she let go of her weapon.

Marisa struggled to get out out of the man's hold but he threw her onto the ground and climbed on top of her, pinning her down.

"Well, this is new. I never had a masked assassin before," He commented coolly.

_What? _Marisa never read anything about other assassins to having to come after him.

In one quick move, Joshua pulled the ski mask off of her. Her long hair stuck to her face from the static electricity.

She watched as his eyes widened in surprise.

"Y-you're a girl?" He exclaimed. His surprise state left him to loosen his grip on her and Marisa took the chance to take a nice clean shot at him.

She balled her right hand into a fist and delivered a hard blow to his jaw. He fell to the side from the impact and Marisa quickly stood up and scrambled to where she dropped her dagger.

She picked it up and turned around to face Joshua.

"Nuh uh uh," he taunted as he held a pistol to her.

She stared at the gun with an eyebrow raised in questioning. Nothing in the file stated that Joshua carried an armed weapon on him.

Saleh's files were always detailed and accurate. So why was it that pieces of information were left out?

Joshua shifted his bottom jaw side to side and then held a hand to the spot where Marisa had punched him.

"For a girl, you pack a mighty punch," He complimented.

She continued to hold her gaze at the gun, then at her dagger. There was no way could she assassinate him without taking a bullet. And she didn't want that.

"I suggest you get outta here because in less than a minute or so, my overly protective bodyguard is gonna come running in here. And he won't hesitate to pull the trigger unlike myself."

Marisa could find no words. Was he seriously letting her go? She was just getting prepared to meet her end.

Dumbfounded, she stuttered, "y-y-you're... Letting me... go?"

"Sure, why not?" He shrugged.

"Because... I tried to kill you." She said slowly just in case he hadn't registered what had occurred just moments before.

"Yeah? Well, we all learn to forgive and forget, right?" He chuckled.

"I... I..." She stuttered, her mouth hung open. She could not believe what she was hearing.

For someone to be so calm and nonchalant in such situation was baffling. Most victims would want to kill off their attackers. How was she supposed to react? How was anyone placed in this situation was supposed to react?

Never in her years of assassinating had it ever come to this.

There was pounding on the door.

"Oh, there he is right now," Joshua spoke, "I hope you got some escape route other than the door."

"Sire?" Said the voice outside the door. Joshua continued to stare at Marisa.

"Well...?" He asked with a raised eyebrow and grin on his face.

"I... Yeah." Marisa nodded. If he was going to spare her life, she might as well take it. She placed the dagger into its sheath and slowly walked to the desk of the room. As she walked, she eyed the gun carefully.

Joshua dropped his arm down. "I won't bite," he smirked. "Unless you do."

Marisa climbed on top the desk and lifted the very same ceiling tile up. she was about to hoist herself up until Joshua called out to her.

"Wait. Your mask."

Marisa turned around as Joshua threw the mask at her. She caught it with a hand.

"Next time, don't wear the mask."

_Next time...? _

He knew just as well as her that she would come back for him after this failed mission.

"I don't want ya to hide your pretty little face," he grinned as he raised an eyebrow up in amusement.

"Sire!" The voice in the hallway shouted.

She could do nothing but stare in astonishment, her face most likely evident of her expression. She was speechless. The nerve on this guy to actually hit on his assailant. Her bizarre situation just got even stranger. Instead of muttering inaudible sounds, she quickly climbed into the ceiling and closed the tile.

Before she began to crawl to her room, she asked herself:

_Did that actually just happen?_

**A/N: **And there it is. Just to note, I made Forde and Kyle Joshua's bodyguards.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	3. Just One Dance

**Random A/N: **hehe, I really enjoy reading the reviews, some of you are too kind *blush*blush*

Well, without any further ado,

Enjoy!

* * *

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

**Just One Dance **

"Once I get inside and you hear me say 'hello Mr. Manchester', head in," Colm directed.

Marisa nodded.

"Alrighty then. How do I look?" Colm asked as he adjusted his bow tie.

Marisa took a moment to glance at her partner. He was dressed in a dark tuxedo, with a matching bow tie. His hair is tied back in its usual ponytail style. Definitely an upgrade from his usual lazy coordinated attire.

"Snappy," she commented. "And me?"

Colm stood a step backwards to eye her up and down. "Hmmm... Snappy," he repeated.

Marisa didn't wear anything to fancy, just a simple black dress that went down above her knees, a black cardigan over top and a pair of not too high white heels. Strapped around her left thigh was a dagger, hidden underneath her dress, just in case Colm should fail to complete his mission.

The two had a mission at a high class business gala, where the guests had to dress formally. The mission was assigned to Colm to eliminate an executive senior of a big company. Of course, Colm had picked Marisa as his accomplice to watch his back. To be able to access the gala, your name had to be on the list, accompanied with ID as proof. Saleh had already arranged fake names along with IDs for them to get in.

It had been a week since her failed mission with the inexplicable King. To allow herself to recuperate, Marisa figured the best she should take was a break and allow some time to thoroughly plan a full-proof strategy to get her job done. And besides, the deadline for his assassination was by the end of the month. She had plenty of time.

But the thing that irked her was she always completed her missions on the first day.

"_What? You actually failed a mission?" _

"_Wow… That's a first."_

"_Was this guy trained in the military or something?"_

Such comments from her fellow co-workers annoyed her to the point where she was ready to beat someone's face in. But she kept her usual quiet demeanour and merely rolled her eyes at them.

She failed to complete a mission, yes. As if she was already disappointed in herself, they had to rub it in her face.

_"Someone actually out tricked the great Marisa? This is going to go have some effect to your rep."_

Her reputation as the infamous 'Crimson Flash' known within The Company would probably be stained with this one incomplete mission if Gerik and the others kept up with their belittlement.

"_Hahaha! I can't believe this! Marisa actually FAILED! I told you to give that mission to me!"_

Rennac soon regretted blurting out that comment shorty after Marisa gave him a rough beating.

After coming home from the failed mission she had to take a moment to register what had happened.

_Did he really just let me go?_

_How did he know I was coming after him?_

_Other assassins had come after him?_

_Did he… call me pretty?_

This was definitely a first for her. She would have to get the answers to her many questions. Except for the last one, perhaps it was best to discard that comment.

After giving an earful (which was actually a sentence or 2) to Saleh about his incompetence of research, he had to dig in further in his vast source of information to obtain more on King Joshua, but the King was a secretive man aside from what Marisa and the rest of the world already knew about him.

After hours of staring at the computer screen, Saleh could not pull anything about assassination attempts that Joshua had briefly mentioned. Surely some news of attempted murder on a King would make some headline news. So why was there no record of it?

Troubling indeed.

From their encounter though, Marisa had learned that he had two bodyguards, one was rather overly protective and the other, she didn't know too much about. Joshua carried with him an armed pistol and he should if a number of assassins had come after him in the past. Based on his still existence, it is to be figured that he was successful in evading them. And because of that, he was most likely trained in self-defence. These were based on personal inference though.

As for his personality, she could sum him up as cunning, mellow, and rather odd or just stupid for letting someone who was going to kill him go. She wondered if he did that to his previous assassins.

_"Next time, don't wear the mask_. _I don't want ya to hide your pretty little face."_

Let's add flirtatious to the list. It was a good thing Marisa escaped seconds after he made the comment. Her face stayed a shade of pink similar to her hair color as she drove home after. Compliment or a tease, she could not let this small comment escape her head.

It didn't mean anything. She was an assassin and he was her target.

_What was he thinking, hitting on me? His assassin?_

What was probably worse of the situation was that he saw her face. He knew what she looked like. She wore a mask for the very bane of this situation; if she were to fail to kill a target, they wouldn't be able to report her to the police without a description.

Marisa chose to not tell this crucial piece of information to the others in The Company in fear that they'll get overly worrisome. She simply lied and told them she was caught off guard and had to escape.

But if such a situation was to happen and the face of the assailant was exposed, Gerik kept a contact number to a particular company that specialized in giving new identities to anyone. But that would mean erasing everything your past and starting anew.

Boy, wouldn't that be fun.

All week, she expected the police force to barge in her apartment doors and whisk her away to life in prison. But that never happened.

Perhaps he didn't tell. But why wouldn't he?

Whether he did or not, next time she faced him, she will succeed.

It also irked her how easily he was able to realize she was behind him. She would consider herself to be very stealthy: she was trained in various martial arts, can handle and name weapons at one glance, and trained under many skilled assassins in her younger years. She was silent when she wanted to be. Joshua couldn't have heard her. And there were no windows or mirrors around to show her reflection. Perhaps it was her shadow? No, the light that was turned on casted her shadow to be shown behind him.

How? What did she do to have made her fail? No, it was Saleh's fault for not properly finding out the right information.

Breathing out a sigh, she quickly discarded her disquieting thoughts. Her current affair was to be Colm's accomplice.

Colm headed into the historical building where the business gala was held, and Marisa stood in the courtyard as many people strolled pass her to get in. She decided to busy herself with her phone, in case she looked suspicious to anyone walking by.

Her phone beeped as she randomly pressed buttons. She wasn't very tech savvy, especially when it came to phones and computers. The only time she used her cell phone was to call people, but the others in The Company preferred to text instead of calling, only Gerik called her though. So every once in a while, she would receive a text and wouldn't know how to reply back.

Thinking maybe she should teach herself how to, Marisa slowly spelled out the word 'hello' onto her phone.

She was half way there in spelling out the word when a familiar sounding voice interrupted her.

"I see you took my advice and got rid of that mask."

Letting out a small gasp, Marisa whipped around and found herself face to face with Joshua. She stared in bewilderment at him.

He wasn't supposed to be here. Saleh gave both Marisa and Colm a list of guests who would be attending, and Joshua wasn't on that list. Unless she somehow overlooked his name the three times she checked over the list.

"Wh-what..." She started, but she was lost for words. So instead to she looked around the courtyard. There weren't very many people around them, just off in the far distance. Lamp posts lit up the dark night down the street, but in the courtyard, it didn't give off too much light.

Maybe if she killed him now, no one would see.

Maybe if she killed him, no one would hear.

Would she take the chances?

Why not? It would be killing two birds with one stone. Or in the particular scenario, kill two targets in one mission.

Without any second thoughts, she decided she would kill him here and now.

She began to reach down to grab the hidden dagger laid against her thigh but Joshua read her movements before she even done so. He pushed her into the bushes; the leaves and twigs pricked at her skin, hair and clothes. Eventually, Joshua had pinned her against stonewall that laid behind the bushes.

His right hand was gripped very roughly on her thigh where the dagger laid. His other hand was pushed forcefully onto her shoulder to hold her down. He had leaned all of his body weight onto the arm on her shoulder and his face was inches away from her's. She tried to push him off of her, but that only made him apply more pressure. She whimpered out softly in pain. He didn't look too strong, but surprisingly, he was. If he had pressed any harder, there would probably be a hand printed dent on her skin and bone of that area. She was in a bit of shock at his speed.

Again, he was able to react to her before she did anything. Was she that easy to read?

She heard footsteps followed by a hushed conversation.

There were still people strolling by to get into the gala. She couldn't fight back in these conditions in fear someone might hear their struggles, then she would be exposed.

Although she was very surprised he was here, she kept herself calm and stoic.

"Another dagger? You're pretty old-fashioned," he commented softly into her face. Marisa felt her dagger retract into his hand as he slowly pulled it out of the strap, the flat of the dagger glided against her skin as his long fingers tickled along her thigh. After he removed it, she felt that he probably slid it up into the sleeve of his black tuxedo. In the process of doing so, Marisa could feel his beady little eye stare hard at her. She only took glances at his face, uncomfortable at the close proximity they were in.

She noticed that skin on his left jaw was still bruised from her punch a weak ago. Its light purple color stood out very much from the rest of his pale creamy skin. Only his left eye was shown, his right eye was covered by the tilt of his fedora and his long crimson hair.

She couldn't help but think there was no way he could have read her movements with just the one eye. Either she was losing her touch or he was just good. _Very _good.

After Joshua retrieved the dagger into his sleeve, he placed his hand onto her other shoulder, holding her down. Not as hard as the other one, but it was still forceful.

"No need to hold me down. You've already disarmed me," Marisa said, keeping her tone calm.

"Oh, have I?" He asked as he cocked his head slightly to the side.

"Uh..." Marisa turned her head to the side. They were already pretty close, but Joshua slowly began to lean in. "Wh-what are you doing here?" Marisa asked. She was clearly uncomfortable with her shaky tone in her voice.

He stopped moving in and frowned. "Isn't that your job to know?"

"I'm not here for you."

"Ouch. Can't say I'm a little disappointed to hear that."

Marisa furrowed her eyebrows in a confused look. "What?"

**"Marisa, who's that with you?"** Saleh sounded in her earpiece. Saleh and Cormag had also come along on Colm's mission and were parked a block away from the place.

She couldn't simply say 'Joshua' with the guy in front of her, so she ignored Saleh for the time being.

"Sire?" Said a voice.

"Maybe he went in already?" Said another. Marisa immediately recognized it as Joshua's bodyguards.

"Come inside and dance with me," Joshua said.

"What?" Marisa asked. It sounded more like in invitation rather than an order.

"I've got a couple of questions to ask you, and I don't know about you, but I'm feeling rather uncomfortable. If we're gonna have to do it in a discrete manner, why not do it through dancing?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"You're not going to tell your bodyguards...? Marisa asked.

"Of course not," Joshua said as if she had asked a stupid question. "Just follow my lead, and no one needs to know who you really are," he shot a wink at her.

Marisa bit the bottom of her lip as she shifted her eyes to the side.

**"Oh, well hello Mr. Manchester." **Colm sounded.

That was her signal to go in.

**"Go with him. Whatever questions he asks, I'll guide you through it." **Saleh said.

She shifted her eyes to the side, defeated at her limited options. She had to go in anyways.

She sighed then nodded her head hesitantly.

**"... I'd like to speak to you about your company..."** Colm said.

**"Wait. I'll disconnect you guys." **Said Saleh. There was a click and Colm's voice was heard no more.

"Good." Joshua smiled as he lifted himself off from her. "Ladies first." Joshua said as he gestured his arm out to the bushes.

"Wait... Do you hear that?" Asked one of the bodyguards.

"Come along now, they're waiting." Joshua said in a mocking tone.

Marisa had no other choice but to comply with him if she didn't want to be exposed. And perhaps she would have the opportune to have him answer some questions of her own. As she walked past him, she shot a glare at him.

She emerged from the bushes and Joshua's bodyguards laid eyes on her. One had curly green hair, the other had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, like Colm. They both wore matching black suits and they were rather build and tall.

"Oh, your majesty!" Exclaimed the green-haired one after Joshua come out and stood beside Marisa. The green haired man walked over to Joshua, shifting his eyes from Marisa then to him. "I thought I told you not to... Conduct erm, such business in public." He scolded in a hushed tone.

_Such business...? Oh. _She suddenly blushed at the outrageous thought.

"Heh heh. Sorry, Kyle. Guess I couldn't control myself. But anyways, this is my date," Joshua stood beside Marisa and wrapped his arm around her waist. She felt the dagger he pulled from her poke her through his sleeve.

**"You're his what?"** Marisa could hear Cormag and Saleh say in sync.

"I'm your, what?" She said a second after. She squirmed to get away from his arm around her, but that only made him hold on tighter and she could feel the hidden dagger in his sleeve poke her with its sharp tip. She wondered if he was purposely holding her at knife point or he just so happened to be at the left of her and decided to wrap his right arm around her.

"Oh. Pleasure to meet you. And your name is...?" The man named Kyle didn't hear Marisa's little blurt and held a hand out to her.

She stared at his hand.

**"Your fake name: Mia."** Saleh instructed.

"Mia," Marisa repeated as she took the hand. Kyle's grip was tight and he shook with some dominance. She knew she wouldn't want to mess with him.

"Mia…" She heard Joshua mutter under his breath. If she could string him to believe this was her real name, then he would try not to ask for it later on. As well as come up with false information on her if he chose to look her up.

She looked over to the blonde and he just merely waved at her from his distance. "I'm Forde," He called out.

Marisa looked at Joshua to see if he would call out Forde's informality, but he didn't.

"Alright, let's go." Joshua said as he led the way into the building, his arm was still around Marisa and Kyle and Forde followed closely behind them.

**"Wait. King Joshua? As in the guy you failed to kill before? He isn't supposed to be there." **Saleh asked. Marisa's lips twitched at the part where he mentioned her failing to kill him.

"**How does he know who you are? You didn't reveal your identity to him, did you?" **Saleh demanded, more than ask.

Marisa remained silent and grimly bit her bottom lip. She heard him let out a hefty sigh before muttering "okay."

The building was very old, dated back to the medieval times. It was used back in the days for aristocrats and nobles to hold meetings and do business. Today, it is still used for that. Their footsteps echoed through the vast stoned hallways before they arrived to the ballroom. They both gave their names to the person at the entrance.

Marisa looked around the room to spot Colm, but there were numerous of people gathered. Many were dancing, eating, and conversing with one another.

A number of people immediately laid eyes on Joshua, some coming up to start a conversation with him but were quickly brushed off by Forde and Kyle.

She felt watched. Hundreds of eyes were on her as Joshua led her through the room. This would only make her job harder. She was uncomfortable as she heard the soft murmurs from the many speculators.

"Just be thankful this is a private event and camera crews aren't here," Joshua said.

Marisa stayed quiet as Joshua led them both to the back of the room, on the dance floor where a handful of dancing couples spaced away from them from the orders of Kyle and Forde. Although they quickly complied, their eyes were still on Marisa and Joshua.

Joshua twirled her around to face him; her right hand clamped in his left hand and his right arm was still wrapped around her. As for the dagger, it was still poking her at her back. They began to dance, well, more like sway side to side. Joshua led them to the far corner of the dance floor, away from everyone. And she was faced towards the wall where she couldn't see anyone, let alone look for Colm. She sighed angrily as she looked off to the side.

Music, chattering and clattering of dishware filled the room as they stood quietly before Marisa asked, "well?"

Joshua looked down at her. "Well...?" He repeated dumbfounded.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You said you had questions for me."

"Ah right, I did. But can't we just enjoy this moment first?"

"What?" She asked. She simply couldn't believe this guy.

"Y'know, you say that a lot," he smirked back down at her.

"That's because you're quite cracked," Marisa countered.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "And what exactly makes me 'cracked', Mia?"

At least he believed that was her name. "You... Because you let me go..." Marisa responded slowly.

"Hm. So, what makes me cracked is that instead of killing you when I had the chance, I let you go? Since when did letting a person live considered weird?"

"I..." He did have a point, she was lucky to be alive.

"Of course, that wouldn't be considered weird to you, right?"

Marisa said nothing. To some extent, yes, it would be considered weird considering her line of work.

"Tell me," he began as he leaned in so his head hovered next to her's. "What's someone like you doing in such a dangerous business?" His voice was hushed as it traveled to her ear.

**"Marisa, you don't have to answer him. In fact, don't," **Saleh said.

She didn't need Saleh to tell her that. Not many knew her life story, including Gerik and Rennac, and she preferred it was best it stayed that way.

"Don't wanna tell me? Fine. Then let me ask the real questions I had in mind," he leaned back out to face her. "Who sent you?"

**"Say you don't know." **

Again, she didn't need to be instructed because she really didn't know. Unless he was talking about her boss, Gerik.

"I don't know," Marisa answered.

Joshua's face didn't react to her answer and moved on to the next question. "'Kay, then do you happen to know why whoever sent you wants me dead?"

**"Say you don't know the answer to that either."**

Marisa shrugged. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I don't know," she repeated.

Joshua kept quiet and stared intensely at her. Uncomfortable, Marisa turned her head so see if the eyes were still on her. To her left, there were three couples, probably a few feet away from them, dancing away to themselves, most likely bored of watching the King dance with her timid self.

That was one less pair of eyes watching her. She could feel Joshua's eyes bore into her, as if he were trying to peer into her soul, as creepy as it sounded.

"Hey," he finally said.

Marisa turned her head back over to him. "Wha-Hmmm!" In the midst of saying that one little word, Joshua found the opportunity to press his lips hard against her's and stick his tongue into her mouth.

Marisa stared wide-eyed as he roughly kissed her. She used the hand that laid on his chest to push him off of her but he was quite persistent. The more she struggled, the harder he pulled her in.

The constant rough rolling and caress against her tongue muffled out her screams. She felt his tongue make its way all along the inside of her cheeks and her teeth.

**"What's that sucking sound?" **Asked Cormag.

**"Marisa? I told you not to eat with the microphone in." **Saleh said.

Finally he pulled away. Their lips sounded like the sound of suction cups when being pulled away, oddly.

Marisa gasped for air. "What, what's wrong with you?" She huffed.

Joshua let go of Marisa's hand and pulled something out from his mouth. She took her free hand to wipe the drool and slobber that had formed around her mouth and chin.

She took the time to glance around her, sure there were people staring at them again. She was wrong; the couples around them seemed to into themselves to notice the flustered date of the King.

"A molar microphone, eh?" He said as he examined the piece of equipment between his thumb and index finger.

Marisa darted her eyes back and forth between the microphone and Joshua. How smart of him to dig his tongue into her mouth to retrieve the microphone. But at the same time, she felt quite violated that his saliva was now mixed in with her's in her mouth. She wanted to spit out the gooey mess in mouth onto the floor, but she restrained herself.

"Clever, but too bad I already saw this before. And if I'm not mistaken..." He reached over to her left ear. Before she could pull away, he had already taken out the thumb-sized earpiece.

"Ah," was all he said before he dropped the two items and stomped on it with his foot. He grabbed Marisa's hand back into his.

"How... How did you know?" Marisa asked, still flustered from the 'kiss'.

"When you have had people after you, you just know," he merely shrugged. "Now," he began as he leaned in closely to her. "Now that you don't have little voices in your head telling you what to do and say, answer my questions truthfully." He hushed.

Marisa tried to regain herself. It was okay that communication was cut off from the Saleh and the rest. She could carry herself on her own, she thought.

"Who sent you?" He said slowly and sternly.

"I don't know." Marisa mimicked his tone.

They stood in silence for a moment before he pulled himself back to face her.

"You honestly don't know?" He asked.

Marisa nodded her head once in agreement.

His face went hard. "Are you telling me that you were sent after me and you didn't even question why?"

"That's part of the rule," Marisa blurted out without thinking.

"Rule? I don't know any Government organization with that kind of rule," He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

_Opps._

There were Government owned assassination groups and there were privately owned groups. It was illegal, but they existed. The Company was privately owned. The Government owned assassination groups were mainly responsible for eliminating terrorists and anyone who threatened the politics. Privately owned assassination groups were not limited. Anyone is your target as long as you had the money.

"Unless... You don't work for any Government?" Joshua asked slowly.

Marisa really wished he hadn't taken out her earpiece and microphone, though she felt she was capable of handling herself. She looked off to the side to think of something.

"Just tell me whether or not you work for the Government or not, and I'll let you go," He said.

"Huh?" Was all Maria could mumble.

She couldn't believe she was going to be let go once again.

"Just tell me."

She bit the bottom of her lip hesitantly. She wasn't sure if she should tell him, how could she trust that he won't report her to the authorities? Then again, he didn't last time.

Biting back some hesitation, she answered his question.

"I... Don't," she responded softly.

"Ahh," Joshua said, almost sounding relieved. "I'm a bit happy about that."

"Why?" Marisa asked curiously.

"Oh, well, 'cause. I'm pretty friendly with all of the Government power of Magvel. If one of 'em had sent you, I would've liked to know why they wanted me dead," Joshua said in a 'matter-in-fact-ly' tone. "Anyways," Joshua unwrapped his arms around her and let go of her hand. After he did, he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Just like that?" Marisa asked, "you're going to let me go?"

Joshua shrugged lazily. "Yeah. Go on."

No use trying to finish her job tonight, in such a crowded place.

She gave him one last reluctant look before she turned on the sole of her heel. She couldn't take the first step away because of the many questions itching for her to know. She turned back around to face him.

"I have some questions of my own," she said, making her tone sound confident and strong.

"Yeah? Shoot."

There were no particular questions lined up to be asked, so she asked the first that popped up in her mind.

"Why?"

"Why, what?" Joshua repeated.

"Why are you letting me go? Next time we meet, I'm going to kill you."

To anyone, it would be a threat. Her gaze alone was enough to send a death threat. But with Joshua, even though she had known him personally for a short amount of time, she wasn't quite surprised with the response he gave.

"I like you, you're fun to play with." He grinned.

Marisa kept her cool gaze.

"Another one," she continued, ignoring his answer whether if it was his real answer or he was fooling around. "You mentioned you had other assassins come after you before... Why?"

"Oh. Hm," Joshua pursed his lips together as he stared up at the ceiling. "That will have to be unanswered for tonight."

"Wh- But I answered your question," Marisa stated, a bit annoyed.

"Well," Joshua began to scratch the back of his head. "I'll let you know once our relationship deepens."

"Relationship? What relationship?" Marisa huffed, clearly annoyed at his behaviour.

"What, you don't feel it? The tension between us is like a hot fire," Joshua countered smugly.

_Seriously. This guy is just so… What is up with him?_

She crossed her arms over her chest in a hostile manner. "I- There is no relationship. I am going to," she looked around her to see if anyone was listening or watching them, then turned back to him, "kill," she said mutedly, "you. Kill you. And that is as far as this relationship goes," She snarled.

"My, my. Kitty shows her claws now," Joshua commented jokingly. "Well then, I'll see you next time then," he ended with a wave from his hand.

With nothing to do but leave, she exhaled sharply and turned to make her leave.

"Wait, you don't want this back?" He called after her. She turned her head to the side to see out her peripheral and saw him waved his right arm out with the tip of the blade her was shown out his sleeve.

She did want it back, not so much as she wanted to get out the place though.

"No," She simply responded then started to walk off once again.

"Alrighty then," he sang.

Just when she thought he was finish with his nonsense, his voice chirped up.

"How about next time we make it so you tell me your real name in exchange for the answer of your question?"

Marisa froze for a slight second in place before continuing on her way.

Never in her five years as a professional assassin has she come across someone like him. Him. How could she start to describe someone such as himself?

Well, infuriating would be one.


	4. A Bet

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

Enjoy!

* * *

**A Help From a Stranger**

_"So you really killed him, huh?" The man asked as he sat back. The leather of his chair squeaked as it rubbed against the fabric of his clothing. _

_Marisa said nothing but stared with a cold look._

_"That's... Pretty impressive. And he was your first kill?" He asked. She couldn't see the man's face, only the outline of his body and the chair he sat in in the darkness. The only light source in the room was the moonlight that shone through the apartment's window. Though she could not see his face, she could tell that he was excited and impressed at the least. _

_Marisa said nothing again. She took her hands out of her jacket's pockets to scratch an itch on her arm. When she made the fingernails to arm contact, it felt funny. She looked down. There was blood caked on her hand; on her palm, on her fingers, her wrist and underneath her nails. _

_"That's good. That's good. You have your father's killing instant and his style. ...Why don't you join us?" The man asked. _

_Marisa continued to stare at bloodied hand. _

_She had heard of people's habit of trembling with they did something bad._

_Why didn't her hands tremble? She had committed a terrible sin, probably the worst of all the sins. But instead, her hands laid still in the moonlight. _

_She looked back up at the man. His legs were crossed on top of each other, the leg on top fidgeted side to side as he waited for her answer. _

_"Yeah." Marisa replied. "Just name the person and place." _

_"Excellent." The man said. "Come back here tomorrow. We'll get everything set up."_

_Marisa turned to leave. The moment she left the room to the moment she got home, a devilish grin laid on her face._

*Ring*Ring*

Marisa let out a groan as she slowly sat up.

Her back was all sore, and it hurted to move her left arm.

She used her right arm to reach over and grab her cell phone.

"Hello?" She said.

"Marisa," Gerik greeted. "Get down here. Immediately," and then he disconnected.

He sounded urgent and frantic.

She wondered what had happened.

So she quickly got out of bed, careful of not moving her left arm too much.

When she got the bathroom, she lifted her shirt down to see her shoulder and surely enough, there were different shades of purple spotted all along there.

_Damn him._

She grabbed some herbal medical ointment and rubbed it all over her shoulder, wincing every time she touched there.

After Marisa quickly got dressed and ate breakfast, she drove her way over to Gerik's place.

Gerik had never sounded too frantic and serious before. Something terrible must have happened.

She parked her car in the driveway, there were several cars parked there and Marisa knew that the whole gang was inside. She opened the door to the mansion and stepped into the quiet place.

She walked into the living room, where everyone usually hung out, and there they were, hovered around the 50' flat screen TV that hung on the wall.

They all turned their heads to Marisa, an expression of surprise planted on their faces.

"Hi," she greeted, a bit confused at what was going on. It was them who usually greeted her first whenever she entered the room.

"Marisa..." Gerik said. Marisa walked to the crowd and stood beside Tethys and Neimi, who sat down on the arm of the armchair, while Tethys stood.

Their eyes were still on Marisa.

"Yes?" She responded to Gerik, but he looked like he was in some state of shock.

"...Just watch." He clicked a button on the remote control and a TV program appeared on screen.

_"Hello! You are watching 'Magvel Entertainment', where we bring you the news and gossip of celebrities all around this great continent!" _Said the host. She wore a small sexy tight black dress, with very high black stilettos, and her orange hair was stringed with big curls.

Marisa didn't watch too much TV, let alone entertainment shows. The only channel she ever watched was the news, to watch if her assassination missions made the news.

_"Joshua Ladoe, King of the desert land, Jehanna, had recently arrived in Renais to conduct meetings and deals with Renais' entrepreneurs and businessmen."_

The screen went to a shot of hundreds of screaming girls ranging from what looked like, the age of 10 - 20. Most of them were probably pre-teens. And they were at the airport.

_"Ahhh! We love King Joshua!"_

_"He's soooo hot!"_

_"King Joshua! Marry me!"_

Marisa arched an eyebrow up. She knew being King and all, he would have fangirls. She never knew they'd be this insane and crazed. It was a shame she would have to kill the man they worshiped.

_"It is no doubt in anyone's mind that he is amongst the top ten on our list of hottest bachelors._"

A picture of Joshua showed up on half of the screen. Marisa's fingers twitched at the sight of him. If only he stayed still like his picture on the TV, she would take the object nearest to her and whip it at his face.

_"With the re-emergence this year, everyone is just excited to see this once rebellious Prince take on the role as a neatly poised King. Evidence of change was clearly seen from the young King from earlier interviews. Could it be from the help of a significant other, or who we like to call the future Queen of Jehana? This clip we're about to show you was captured by a spectator at Henry Earls building last night, where a business gala was held and where King Joshua attended." _

The screen then showed the clip. Two familiar figured popped up on the screen.

It was Marisa and Joshua.

Whoever took the video looked like they were a good 10 feet away from them. The video was taken to show their sides, where Joshua had his arm around her. The video was held steadily, only shaking every few seconds, clearly evident of amateur work.

Marisa stared with her mouth hung slightly open.

Someone was recording them and she had no idea.

The video replayed the events that had taken place the night before. It showed them dancing and their lips moving and Joshua leaning in and back out. And then, their kiss, which the cameraperson thought was appropriate to zoom in.

"Ha…" Marisa muttered sheepishly as she glanced around the room at everyone's faces. They all had their mouths parted and their eyes wide opened. Only Rennac was grinning slyly.

Rennac shot up from the ground he was sitting on.

"Marisa likes it rough!" He shouted out then pointed to the screen. "Look at how she's pulling him in for some more." Strangely, he sounded happy at this.

"Yeah, you can see his tongue poking the insides of her cheek." Colm pointed out as he, too, stood up and pointed at her face on the screen.

"You guys are idiots." Marisa said with annoyance. Although, from the camera's point of view, it did look like she was reeling him in, because of how he kept throwing himself onto her when she pushed him away.

Before Rennac and Colm could answer to Marisa's insult, the screen shot back to the host.

_"We caught up early this morning with Joshua as he attended a press conference at city hall and here was what he had to say."_

_"King Joshua! King Joshua!"_ Shouted the person behind the camera.

The camera person ran up to Joshua just as he was getting into a limo. Forde stood by in the background while Kyle hovered nearby, holding out an arm between Joshua and the paparazzi. A pair of huge dark sunglasses laid on their faces. Joshua spun around to face the camera person, with a smile on his face, showing his teeth.

"Hey," he greeted out as he waved a hand.

Five microphones shot out at the bottom of the screen as reporters shot questions at him.

_"Who was that woman you kissed at the Henry Earls business gala last night?"_

_"Is she a girlfriend?"_

_"Do you plan on marrying her?"_

_"Who is she?"_

_"How did you meet her?"_

Joshua chuckled as he waved his hands out to them.

_"Uh..." _He scratched the side of this head, his fedora moving up and down from the scratching.

_I'm old-fashioned? He's the one wearing a dated out hat. _Marisa thought grimly to herself.

_"I met her a week ago," _Joshua began.

Marisa held her breath. Was he going to tell everyone her real identity?

_"Yeah, we got off to a rocky start, but uh, everything's alright now."_

_"So she's a girlfriend?"_

Joshua shrugged.

_"She's quite stubborn but, uh yeah… I like her!"_

He shot out a smile one last time to the camera before he headed into the limo.

Gerik hit the paused button and everyone turned their eyes to Marisa.

_He… Likes me? I'm stubborn? Who on Earth would call me his girlfriend?_

She simply could not understand; what were his motives by feeding the media the totally untrue information?

"Marisa," Gerik said as he walked up to her, his arms were crossed. "Care to explain?"

"Yeah, that and why you suddenly disappeared last night?" Saleh joined in as he went to stand beside Gerik.

"Are you guys really together or something?" Gerik inquired.

Before Marisa could answer, Neimi began to sniffle behind her. What could she possibly be crying about at a time like this?

"*Sniff*sniff*. It's like... A tragic love story, kind of like a forbidden love. That's... So sweet. *sniff*"

"A forbide- What?" Marisa blurted out.

"Ahh, quite so. It's like in those movies, where the assassin falls in love with their target. Quite a taboo in the business, I never thought it would actually happen," Tethys commented as she flicked her shawl over her shoulder.

"It didn't happen," Marisa began, but was interrupted by Cormag.

"Wait a minute. Is that why we lost communication with you all the sudden? So you could spend time with him?"

"No," Marisa answered, but they continued to ignore her and throw assumptions and questions at her.

"What? I don't understand… How did this all begin? Is this why you didn't kill him?" Gerik asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Or maybe she met him when she was supposed to kill him but they… 'hit it up'," Saleh awkwardly ended. Like Gerik and his bad jokes, Saleh would sometimes like to use the younger kids' slangs which did not work for him.

"Aw, so she's protecting him," Tethys cooed.

"When she disappeared last night… She probably headed out to do some... 'business meeting' with him," Rennac said holding in a laugh as Colm snickered.

She had reached her breaking point. "Shut up. All of you," She demanded.

Though she said it in her usual mono tone voice, the others knew she meant it.

They quieted down so Marisa could properly explain herself.

She sighed heavily. Moment of truth.

"I'm not involved with him in any way. He just… I don't know how to explain it."

"Strangers with benefits?" Rennac inquired smugly.

It was in her natural instinct to shoot a deathly glare at him. Sometimes he can say the craziest things that get others around him boiled to the bone.

Ignoring what he had said, she continued. "He didn't report me to the authorities."

"That's strange… Why wouldn't he?" Gerik questioned.

"I'd like to know that as well. Apparently he has a past with assassins. There's just no full evidence of it. Well, I didn't expect him to show up last night because _somebody,_" Marisa shot a glare at Saleh.

He shifted his body weight uncomfortably from one foot to another.

"Somebody forgot to put it in the files. He knew I was wired so he de-bugged me so he could ask me questions."

"And how did he de-bug you?" Saleh asked.

"Hm..." She thought of how to blatantly say 'he used his tongue'.

"No way." Rennac gasped, a smile seeping onto his face. "He... And that...? I see now," he now grinned.

"What? What?" Colm asked, clueless to Rennac' realization.

It took only a second for the rest of the group to register it.

"Aurgh." Gerik groaned as he squeezed the bridge of his nose. His eyes were closed as he frowned.

Saleh avoided his gaze at Marisa, looking at the ground.

Rennac and Colm were both sneering and snickering, while Neimi wiped away tears that were still falling from her eyes. Tethys had a slight look of disgust on her face.

Knoll stood at the back, still staring gapingly at Marisa and Cormag only shook his head in a disapproval manner at her.

"Okay, so what questions did he ask when you were… de-bugged?" Saleh asked.

"Not much." Marisa shrugged.

"Does he know your true identity? And where you work?" Gerik asked as she sprang his head up.

"No." Marisa said. Although, the only piece of information she did leak out to Joshua was that she worked for a non-Governmental organization of assassins.

Biting the bottom of her lip grimly, she responded quietly, "he knows we're a privately owned company."

"WHAT?" Gerik nearly shouted. "Y'know, there's not a lot of private assassin groups out here. There's only a matter of time before the police tracks us down. Do you know what happens when we're tracked down? we're gonna be put in jail for a LONG time. And not just us, everyone that's afflicted with this company."

Gerik's panic attack seemed to have little effect on the others. They all still stood staring at Marisa, Rennac and Colm were still giggling at what they had seen on the television screen.

Marisa scratched behind her ear. "Calm down," she said, trying to use a calming tone. "He said he wouldn't report me and let me go."

"But how can you trust him? I mean, why wouldn't he report you? You tried to kill the dang guy," Gerik said.

She shrugged. "I don't know."

That very question pondered her mind from the first time he let her go.

"I'll go kill him... tonight," Marisa hesitantly said. She really didn't want to do anything today but rest her sore body, but she knew it was the only way to calm Gerik down.

"Tonight? Okay... But I think you should bring at least 2 or 3 people with you," Gerik said. "That guy out-smarted you twice already."

Marisa let out a sigh. The mention of her failure was utterly a disappointing reminder.

"Not me." Neimi said. Marisa turned to look at her. She had stopped crying, but her eyes were red and puffy. "I've got an important mid-term tomorrow that I have to study for. Sorry Marisa." She shot a weak smile up at her.

Marisa nodded.

_Dang it. _Marisa was hoping the sniper would go. Their past missions together always turned out more successful than when Marisa was anyone else.

"Sorry Mar, that goes the same to me. My English professor said if I don't get my grade up to at least a 'D', I'll get kicked outta his class." Colm lazily shrugged.

"Knoll and I got some teacher's conference we have to go to." Saleh said, a bit of guilt hindering in his tone.

"I skipped my shift last night, I can't do it again." Cormag replied.

"And I have to attend Ewan's teacher/parent's conference." Tethys sighed.

That left only Rennac.

Gerik looked his eyes back and forth between Marisa and Rennac. "Great. I trust you guys will get it done? For sure this time?" Gerik asked as he pointed a finger to both of them.

Rennac walked over and put a hand on top of Marisa's head. "Yeap. You can count on us!" Rennac said as he held a thumb oup.

"Get your hand off of me." Marisa grumbled, and Rennac quickly did so.

"I'm sorry I can't monitor you guys tonight... But here." Saleh picked up a folder and handed it to Marisa. "Sources tell me that Joshua had recently purchase a house here. He's not moving here, I don't think, more like Summer home or something."

Strange. It was fall, and weren't most Summer homes in places that were enjoyable? Truth be told, Renais was not all that exciting. Somewhere by the sea, like Frelia or Rausten would be more enjoyable.

"But anyways," Saleh continued. "He's going to be there tonight. I am a hundred percent positive this time."

If he was a hundred percent positive, that was all she needed to know.

"*Yawn*. This guy's place isn't that much bigger than mine. He's a King right? Why couldn't he invest in a bigger place?" Rennac asked.

"Quiet. I think I heard something." Marisa said. She raised the binoculars to her eyes to peer into the dark home. A light instantly turned on from one of the many windows.

"There he is." Rennac said as he held his own pair of binocular to his eyes. "Yeesh. He can't invest in a haircut as well? He looks like a woman from behind!"

Marisa rolled her eyes.

This was part of the reason Marisa did not like going on missions with Rennac.

"You stay here. I'll go in." She said.

"You're going to go in by yourself? What if he outsmarts you again?"

"He won't." Marisa gritted the words through her teeth angrily as she quickly raised the binoculars up to her eyes to peer into the home.

"Uh…" Sensing her anger, Rennac shut his mouth.

The good thing about Joshua's new home was that its backyard was a forest. It was a perfect opportunity to hide in the trees and blend in within the darkness.

"If I don't come out in say, 15 minutes, come get me." Marisa ordered.

"So you're really going to go in by yourself... All right then. Fifteen minutes it is." Rennac kicked his legs up to rest on the tree branch, and leaned back against the tree, with his arms behind his head.

Even if she had not told him she would go in by herself, Rennac would have still let her do all the work. It was expected from the slacker.

If her last two attempts hadn't ended disastrous, she would have brought Rennac along but now her mission felt personal.

The last time any mission became personal to her was her… Very first one.

_Thinks he can escape me, can he? Well, Today is your last day, you… Ass! _She thought bitterly.

It was only a couple of hours since that entertainment show blasted her's and Joshua's kiss to the world and already someone had recognized her when she went to do some grocery shopping.

_"Aren't you... That King's girlfriend?"_

_"Oh my god, she is!"_

_"It's that slut who took away our King Joshie."_

She hated being center of attention_, _small crowds and big crowds. Now she was the controversy in all of Renais, and possibly all of Magvel. Would this mean she would have to go into hiding forever? It was a good thing her identity was so low key; what would have happened if the paparazzi happened to find her on the streets? What would she do, what would she say?

_How did I ever get into his predicament? It's all that… Bastard's fault. Couldn't have died the first go round…_

Marisa began to trek across the yard. She pulled the black ski mask over her head and stuffed her long pink hair into it. She reached back to pull out the .22 gold revolver with a silencer attached she had with her.

Guns weren't her style; she preferred knives and daggers. But because one of her usual dagger was kept with Joshua, she had resorted to it.

The house had many windows, the room that was lit up that Joshua was in a few minutes ago was on the second level. Marisa took out one of the dagger she had with her and jimmy one of the windows open. When it opened, she climbed into the dark room.

Because Joshua had just recently moved into the house, the room was empty. Slowly and silently, Marisa moved to the door, opening it to reveal the dark hallway.

She heard a thump above her and froze. The thump was followed by a shuffling of footsteps.

He was upstairs.

Although the house didn't look too big on the outside, its inside complex was complicated to navigate through but surely, Marisa found the stairs that led upstairs. As she made her way up the stairs, she found a faint glow of blue from one of the rooms upstairs.

When she got to the room, she discovered the blue glow was from a television that was on. Its volume was low as it played a commercial. The screen faced the doorway and there was a leather couch in front of the television. On the couch was a figure.

She'd recognize that old-fashioned hat on that head anywhere. It was definitely him and he had no clue she was behind him.

_Finally. _She thought as she walked closer and closer until she was a meter away.

She aimed the silencer at the head and pulled on the trigger. The gun made a soft 'pew' sound as the bullet left the barrel. The figure fell over but as it did, it made a loud hissing sound.

_What the-? _Marisa peered over the couch, hoping to see a dead body but instead, it was a deflated blow up doll.

She stared in confusion at the doll. The doll was body lengthed, had a bra and panties painted on the area it should have, blonde hair painted on it as well and a very suggestive 'o' shaped hole where the mouth was. The hat was slumped over on the couch next to the doll.

"What the..." Said a voice. Marisa quickly turned around at the doorway.

A wet and naked Joshua stood there with a towel wrapped around his bottom half.

Underneath her mask, Marisa could feel her face burning up as she stared at him, unconsciously eyeing his fine physique.

_What am I doing? _She shook her head and quickly raised the fire arm.

"Ah!" Yelped Joshua as he ran out the doorway and down the hall.

Marisa ran after him, she caught a glimpse of his crimson red hair trailing behind him as he entered the second room on the right.

When she got inside the room she quickly closed the door behind him. If she couldn't see him, he couldn't see her.

Using her left hand, she felt along the wall as she took small steps into the dark room, in her right hand was her pistol. She tried to listen to any sounds that could indicate where Joshua was hiding, but the room was silent. She took off her ski mask in hope that maybe she could see in the dark better.

Her fingers landed on something on the wall. It was a light switch. She hesitated to turn it on, in fear that he might strike before she could.

But she did anyways.

As soon as she did, something was wrapped around her neck tightly. She tried to grab hold of whatever it was, but a force pushed her up against the wall and then onto the floor. Her pistol had fallen out of her hand. Her body was already sore and fragile, so thrashing around hurted. A lot.

She was pinned to the ground with her face to the marble floor, her arms gripped tightly by Joshua's hands behind her back. Near her lower back region sat Joshua, happily holder her down. She tried to push him off, but because her whole upper body was sore, it only hurted when she moved underneath him.

"Why won't you die?" Marisa groaned aggregately.

"Oh, you again." Joshua said.

Marisa peered up at him through the corner of her eyes as the side of her face was matted to the floor. His face was made into a smile as he peered down at her. His hair was matted wet against his head, the bruise on his left jaw was still visible and she could actually see his other eye. From how she was positioned, she could see his face and his naked chest.

"Hey, have you seen the news yet? You're an instant celebrity now." He grinned down at her.

"Yeah. Thanks a lot." Marisa thanked sarcastically.

"What? You don't sound too happy being my girlfriend. A lot of girls would kill to be where you are now. Ha, no pun intended." He laughed to himself.

"Why? Why did you have say all that? You could've just said I was nobody." She glared up at him.

"Yeah, I could've." She felt something being tied around her hands, followed by a soft grunt from Joshua.

She was quickly spun around then sat upright. Her arms were still held behind her back and when she tried to move, she was held back. Taking a glance behind her, she saw a rope tied numerous times around her wrist and the other end tied to protruding pipe coming out from the ground and into the ceiling.

Tugging by her wrists a few time, she guessed how tightly she was bounded. Only to be able to move her arms so much as a centimetre, she quickly gave up.

"But I didn't." Joshua stated obvious as she stood up to sit in front of her.

From what Marisa could clearly see, he wore nothing but the towel. Clothed, he didn't look all to fit to have a single muscle, which was very misleading compared to when he was unclothed. His chest was quite firm and hard, the same could be said about his biceps. His abs were nicely formed seemed and look flexed even when Joshua didn't seem to be flexing them. He had a fine physique that fitted nicely with his rugged yet soft face. It was no wonder why he was so popular amongst the women.

That spoken, he sat crossed legged on the floor. If he stretched his legs any further, she could peer right up his unspoken region.

She quickly shifted her eyes elsewhere, feeling a rush of blood rise up to her face. She decided to take the time to scan the room they were in. Evident from the shower, sink and bathtub, they were in bathroom. A very large one at that.

"Up for a little Q&A?" Joshua asked.

"Questions and answers?" Marisa asked back.

"Yeah, you seemed to have a lot of questions last time. As so do I."

_How long has it been? Ten minutes? If I could preoccupy him some time, Rennac could come…_

With Joshua's back to the open bathroom door, it was a perfect opportunity for Rennac to strike.

"Okay." Marisa agreed. "But I ask first."

"Nah, I'll ask first." Joshua said.

"But yesterday…"

"_Yesterday_," Joshua carefully enounced. "Yesterday I said I'll tell you what you wanted to know if I got to know you better."

"No. You said that if our relationship deepened." Maria corrected.

"Heh." He scoffed. "What relationship?" He smirked as he leaned back on the support of his arms, stretching the towel out that covered very little of his skin.

Marisa's eyes searched the ceiling, trying to avert her gaze.

He started at her flustered self and then grinned profusely. "What, am I bothering you?"

"No." She spoke softly, a deep blush beginning to form across her cheeks as she continued to stare the ceiling.

"Really?" He further questioned as he scooted closer to her.

A question like that was evidently asked to tease her.

He inched closer until their toes nearly touched.

"So, question one. How long have you been doing this?" He asked.

"Unless it's me asking the questions, I'm not saying anything." Marisa started firmly.

"Fine. Then I guess we'll just sit here. I'm not doing anything tonight. I was supposed to but somebody had to go destroy my fun tonight." He sighed in a disappointedly mocking manner. He looked down at his feet for a second before he peered up at tied assassin with a raised eyebrow.

"Unless you have other suggestions as to what other fun I should do?"

"Here's one; why don't you go whine to someone who cares?" Marisa said coldly as she glared at him.

"Re-ow." Joshua mewed. "You're really feisty. How about saving some of that energy to answer me?"

"Over my dead body." She blurted out.

"Careful now. Something like that shouldn't be taken too lightly." Joshua said as he reached over to take Marisa's fallen weapon that was lying on the floor.

She eyed Joshua carefully as he examined the gun. "Why don't you just kill me now?" From previous experience, he did not seem willingly to do just that. Which brought Marisa to ask herself another question.

_What exactly does he want with me?_

"Because." Joshua stated as he took out the bullets from the gun and laid each component on either side from him.

"I think you can be helped."

"Helped?" Marisa repeated. "I don't need help."

"Oh, because someone who kills for a living is clearly sane." Joshua said with sarcasm.

Marisa scoffed. "I don't need help." She repeated herself again.

"If we're repeating ourselves here, I might as well repeat my question: how long have you been doing this for?" He asked with his head cocked to the side.

Her answer to his question was nothing but a cold stare. Her eyes were fixated on his ruby eyes, which were lifted into a half smile suited to the man's freely attitude. A contrast to the assassin's standoff behaviour she was portraying.

"Well… You don't look all that old. You're experienced, I can tell that. So you started at a pretty young age, didn't you?" He inferred.

"And you seem very hostile. 'Course, anyone who kills for a living is bound to be like that. But no…" He waddled a finger at her. "Did you have a bad childhood?"

Marisa continued to stay quiet as she tilted her chin slightly upwards to stand dominance on her ground to not say anything.

"Grew up with one parent? No parents? Neglected? Abused?" He listed as a fingernail lightly tapped the floor. He took her silence as a sign to continue.

"Or maybe you were taken in by some cult… Where they raised you up to be a killer." Joshua said slowly.

"Who do you think you are? A psychologist? Are you trying to 'read' me?" Marisa spoke after scoffing at his ridiculous guess.

He merely shrugged.

"Well, you can keep on talking, but I won't say anything."

The two only stared intensely at each other in silence. Dark magenta eyes against rubies, fighting for dominance and control over each other.

The longer they stared, the longer the tension grew.

Gulping down a small amount of saliva down her dry throat, Marisa tried her best to show no fear against the pair of eyes that stared her down.

"Well then…" Joshua finally broke out after he glided his tongue against his top lip. "I'll tell you little bit about my childhood."

Marisa blinked. Had she won that staring contest? Whatever it may be, so long as he preoccupied the time by talking about himself, it wound give more time for Rennac to make his grand entrance.

"Where to begin…?" He asked, mostly to himself as he crossed her arms over his chest. "Oh. Well, tell me what you think the life of a young prince with the bountiful of the world at his fingers would be like."

He shifted the conversation over to her, as much to her dislike. The raised eyebrows on his face showed he was waiting for an answer. His eyes though, read he _wanted_ an answer as they stared fixatedly and firmly onto her. They were different from before. He was… Perhaps more serious.

"Perfect." She breathed out as she returned his gaze.

"Hm." He grunted as he looked down, his chin nearly touching his bare chest. "Nothing's perfect." He airily said.

"And my life before was far from perfect. In fact it's at the opposite end of spectrum, maybe even further back." He raised his head again, flicking his head to the side to shift his semi-dry hair out of his face.

He looked off to the side as he continued to speak. "I... Have no memories of my dad. I mean, I don't remember spending any time with him at all. I knew I had a dad, he was just never there. The only face time I had with him was when I was watching him on the television screen giving out his speeches. To make up for his absence, my mom was always there for me."

His tone wasn't as different from before; kept lightly and the half-jokingly manner as before. But Marisa focused on his face more carefully. His eyes weren't fully open as before, but half lidded. He stared at the ground and avoided her gaze. His lips wasn't shaped up in its usual grin, but pouted in a distinguishable manner of a frown.

She didn't know the man too well, heck, she only met him three times in the span of over a week. If there's anything she had learned from Tethys, the master of deceiving, is not fall for someone's emotion so quickly, no matter how convincing it looked.

"Then father died. I was 5 at the time. And who was left to look over the country? Mother." He paused to take a breath. "Every night she used to read me a bedtime story, give me a peck on the forehead then tuck me in. When she took on as leader, every night turned to once a week… Then once a month… Once every six months… With mother gone, who was left to be there for me?" He trailed on.

"I had a better relationship with the maids. And there was a different one every week. The majority didn't want to do anything with me so I was mainly left to play on my own." He reached up to quickly scratch the side of his nose and then went back to his posture of crossing his arms over his chest.

"It wasn't perfect at all." He breathed as he turned his gaze to Marisa.

At bit startled at their eyes connecting once again, she blinked.

"Oh." She whispered, unsure of what to say. She hadn't expected for his childhood to be like that; she expected a happy child playing in their vast green lawned backyards with their high tech toys. At least, that's how she always pictured high classed kids played.

After having their eyes connected for a few seconds, Joshua's gaze fell to the floor, not particularly staring at one spot.

She didn't know why but she felt slightly _remorseful_ for him. Whether his story was true or not, the particular story was just terrible. To revisit terrible memories was always saddening, one she should know.

She let out a small sigh. In some aspect, his past was similar to her, and since he was as so kind to share his story, she would just have to bite back a bit of her pride and tell her story.

"My mom passed away when I was an infant." She spoke, clearing her voice before she did. She felt Joshua's eyes rise up to her as she looked off to the side.

"My dad raised me on his own. He was… an assassin." She drew in a long breath. "He raised me to defend my own. Every day we trained. I would wake up, train, go to school, go home, train and then sleep. Even in my sleep I was still training."

Joshua raised a curious eyebrow to her last statement. She did not need to look at him to see his curiosity, so she further explained.

"He would place a dull sword at my side to keep me from moving around." She leaned forward as far as her restraints took her. "I thought I was good, I worked hard but he never seemed to be happy at me. He never said I was good. He never said I was bad either. And then he was murdered."

She looked back at Joshua and found he had his head cocked to the side, his neck protruding out as if he was listening deeply.

"Oh." He responded, not deliberately copying her previous response.

They sat in silence seemingly remembering their past. It took only a minute for Marisa to change her thoughts to her current situation.

_Before I was… Angry, but now I'm… Sad?_

She was amazed at how her emotions had changed in the duration of three sentences or so. Of course, it would be expected for she have never spoken her past out loud before.

"Not to ruin the mood we have here…" Joshua began. "But do you want to make a bet?"

Marisa only blinked twice. To make a bet at a time like this… What could he possibly want to bet on?

"On what?" She questioned.

"Name a date."

The first thing on her mind was the King's deadline for his execution. With no other particular dates that struck out to her, she responded, "the end of this month."

"The end of this month? So that's… Two weeks from now. Okay, if by that date I haven't changed your mind on this… If I haven't made you walk away from this life… Considering I'd still be your target, you can kill me."

Marisa furrowed her eyebrows together to register what he had just said.

"I won't hold back. No struggles and no tricks." He continued.

"You're… Making a bet on your life?" She asked.

"And yours." He corrected.

"I want to leave my life the way it is." Marisa retorted.

"Oh, because killing people is so much fun!" He exclaimed with sarcasm.

Before she opened her mouth, Joshua continued.

"Just hear me out: you really have nothing to lose. It's me that's risking my life here." He assured.

True. He was either overly confident or just plain stupid. "… And what happens to you if I do… Change?" She asked slowly.

"I stay alive. And I'll be out of your life forever." He smiled satisfyingly to both his and Marisa's pleasure.

There was just one more question she had in mind pertaining to the bet.

"But…Why?"

Joshua moved his lips upwards, forming into a smirk. "Because I only help those who have a chance of getting out."

A chance. A chance of escaping the malevolent lifestyle she led. A chance to leave the past behind and start towards a real future, one where she doesn't prowls around at night stalking victims. It all sounded promising but to believe she had the slightest chance at this was the same as believing that Rennac did not have at least one STI. Or at least that's what Marisa sought out to think.

_Me?_

As promising as it sounded, it was also clouded with doubt and falsity. Marisa could never picture herself doing anything but her current job. What would she do, where would she go? Any change, big or small, was always a hassle. Not to mention terrifying.

_No… I prefer my life to stay the way it is._

She wasn't going to change, not at all. She didn't want to change and she was certain she won't at all. Perhaps if humoured him and took the wager, she will be able to finally assassinate him as it had been proven difficult on her previous attempts. And what better to do it right on the deadline?

After taking a moment to think to herself, she gazed up at the man waiting for an answer. She looked into his eyes; relaxed, but lain open in a glassy stare and eyebrows scrunched up into a furrow. It was as if his face was begging her to accept the bet.

"_Because I only help those who have a chance of getting out."_

A chance…

_Me?_

For someone to say she has a chance, as much doubt rose from it, it still brought a small speck of hope that maybe, _m_a_ybe_ she did after all.

* * *

Thank you for reading. Hope you've enjoyed it and don't forget to review! 8)


	5. The Date

**Random A/N: **Eh, this is pretty short compared to the other chapters.

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

* * *

**The Date**

"Would you like to disclose your relationship with King Joshua?"

"What would you call your relationship with him? Is it consensual?"

"Are you just in it for his fame and money?"

_Annoying. Just annoying._

The pestering reporters and camerapersons were brushed off by Forde and Kyle, bodyguards of Joshua. They stood on either sides of her to create a breathable space as she walked the short distance to the restaurant.

She did not make eye contact with the crowd around her, instead, she stared down at her leather beige boots.

Ideally, wearing casual boots with torn jeans, a plain black tee and an oversized grey zipped up sweater would not be okay when you're meeting with a popular and handsome King at a restaurant. Or also known as a "date".

Of course, from their last meeting, Marisa and Joshua both knew they were not meeting up for a date but rather… A meet up.

Surprised she was when she got a phone call from Joshua himself just a day before to schedule the meeting. Though he did say he would 'keep in touch', but she did not expect for him to take nearly a week to speak to her again. She understood he busy keeping up with meetings, interviews and public meeting, but he had his life on the line. He now only had a week to 'change her' and she was still keeping the idea that she would not change at all.

"_No, no, not at all. They don't know where we are so they won't follow you." _He said over the phone about the limo he had sent over to pick her up.

Wrong. As the vehicle turned the corner, Marisa's heart nearly sank when the paparazzi had crowded in front of the restaurant. Instructed by Kyle, she made sure to make no eye contact with them and say nothing. The five meters from the limo to the restaurant felt like a very long distance.

When she got into the restaurant, she was greeted by a shout by Joshua who sat at the middle table of the empty restaurant.

He stood up to pull the opposing seat he sat in out for her, not taking his eyes off of her as he did so.

As usual, he wore his usual public attire consisting of a well-polished black suit, leather black shoes and his signature tipped fedora. Speaking of appearance, it seemed the bruise she caused on his cheek healed up nicely. The same could be said to the wounds he caused on her.

Hesitant by how strangely empty the five star restaurant was, Marisa took small steps towards the table as she gazed around the spacious room.

Numerous tables filled the room; squared, round, all covered with a clean white table sheet with curvy metallic chairs to match. The carpeted floor was red, much like the red carpet at awards shows and such. Paintings by city known artists hung on the wall as a handful of neatly dressed waiters and waitresses stood by the kitchen at the book.

"I reserved the whole restaurant to us so we can have some peace and quiet." Joshua informed as he gestured for her to take a seat down on the chair.

"Peace and quiet? There's a crowd of paparazzi outside. I nearly drowned in them coming in." She said as she sat down.

After taking his seat across from her, he raised a hand up to scratch the back of his head. "Yeah, don't know how they found out."

_Possibly from you reserving the whole place to yourself. _But she chose to not say it out loud as a waiter strolled by to prepare drinks for them.

Marisa was good with iced water. Joshua was feeling quite optimistic with some scotch on the rocks. It was barely noon and she couldn't help but roll her eyes as he placed his order, careful of not having him see her.

Some would consider their current affair a lunch date. She much preferred it as a strict business meeting. The 'some' coming from the other members of The Company.

Persuading Gerik to extend the King's execution just until the dated deadline was hard, but Marisa managed to come up with a good excuse stating that Joshua had top notch government secrets that would be considered scandalous and rather controversial. Taking the advantage that she was considered to the rest of the world as his 'girlfriend', she would try to get close to him so she could manage to slip a few secrets from him that could be beneficial to The Company. If by then, she did not uncover any secrets, she would still kill him.

Whether he did hide secrets of sorts, she didn't know, but one would suspect he did since he was the one to come up with the excuse.

After settling down and having their drink arrive quickly, they given the time to browse through the menu.

"See anything you like?" Joshua asked, not taking his eyes off the decorated menu.

As much as a fine dine meal would do good for her than from her usual frozen and boxed meals, she did not have much of an appetite. A shame because the majority of meals sounded delicious.

"I'll have the salad," was her answer as she closed the menu.

"That's all?" Joshua asked dubiously.

"I'm not very hungry." Marisa shrugged.

"You sure? I'm paying for this." He said, pushing her to go for a full meal.

She only nodded, followed by a, "I can pay for my own."

He scoffed. "Please. It's on me."

Before she could protest any longer, the same waiter from before came by to take their order.

"I'll have the lamb shank with honey dipped shrimps on the side." was Joshua's order.

"The fields mixed greens salad." Marisa ordered.

After handing the menus to the waiter, it was quiet. Except for the soft classical music playing on the speakers.

As she sipped her water, she wondered how exactly he was going change her. Of course, one meeting wasn't going to have her change her perspective on life immediately, but with only one week left and one face time so far with the King, what was his game plan?

Perhaps a philosophical lecture? A tour of the world? Or a bold quest to find the meaning of life?

"You've been here before?" Joshua asked, taking a sip from his drink.

She shook her head. "I eat in."

"Really? You should go out more. This is my favourite place; the food is fantastic and the service is great. Maybe after this, it'll persuade you to go out often." He smiled.

"Maybe." She blatantly repeated.

Suddenly, her nose was filled with the scent of meat, absolutely delicious meat, like a slab of freshly packed meat thrown on a coal barbeque. It was undeniably drool-worthy.

She and Joshua both eyed the food as it was taken to their table. She was amazed by how quickly the food was prepared, barely a full conversation between the two and it was already finished. At least their 'great service' attribute held true. To be fair though, it _was _only them in the restaurant.

Joshua's meal was placed first before him; in all its glory cooked form, drizzle with sauce and 6 jumbo shrimps placed ascetically on the side dipped with a warm yellow sauce.

He leaned in to take the smoky meal to his nostrils.

"Hmmm." He moaned, taking in the scent.

If her meal hadn't been placed in front of her a second after, she would have dived in to uptake to euphoric scent of the lamb.

She looked down at her salad in a displeasing manner. As expected for any salad to have; chopped lettuce, sliced tomatoes, pieces of mushrooms, undistinguishable greens and splashed with dressing.

She almost regretted ordering just a salad after seeing Joshua's grand meal. But if she wasn't hungry, she wasn't hungry. Why force your capacity?

The two dove into their meals, Joshua being the most excitable and Marisa merely poking her food with a fork.

She took in one piece at the time; a piece of the juicy tomatoes and the moist lettuce. The same can't be said about Joshua, who was stuffing the lamb into his mouth, more than his mouth could take. What was more was he after he would do so, he would go to fit a shrimp, reaching his mouth's capacity.

One would only stare at such pig-like behaviour, which was what Marisa did, along with a feel of jealousy for him to feast on a fine meal.

He stared up from his food, his bottom face smeared with sauce the lamb was dipped in.

"You gonna finish that?" He asked, the mouthful of food mumbling his voice.

Marisa shrugged. "I'm not very hungry."

"Then how about a bite from mine?" He waved a bite-sized piece of lamb in front of her face, dangled on a fork.

Tempting as it was to savour the delish substance dangling inches from her face, she refused.

After the refusal, Joshua went back to devour down his meal. Marisa plopped her head onto her hand, steadying the balance from her propped arm on the table. She went back and forth with glances between Joshua and her food.

_This isn't what I expected…_

Not the food, but the meeting. Not that she expected much, but she did expect much more than a casual (and private) lunch together. She had wondered why the man sitting before her hadn't had any mention of their previous encounter. Ultimately, she figured he wasn't trying at all.

But why wouldn't he? He put his life on the line.

_…_

Unless he was just playing with her and intended to live longer than he had wagered.

With doubt clouding her mind, she decided to perk the conversation, careful that the waiters and waitresses kept their distance away from them. "You have a week to live." She said blatantly.

Without making a sound, Joshua only looked up at her, wiping away the food that had stuck onto him during his feast.

"You haven't done anything yet." She continued. "I don't know how you're going to this."

After taking some seconds to clean himself up, he only chuckled. "I don't know how I'm going to do this either."

She wasn't sure if he was joking around at his usual goofy self, but after no follow-up to that, she questioned, "You've done this before haven't you?"

"Nope." He simply answered.

Now her thoughts on him joking around had diminish to a 60/40 ratio of him being serious and kidding around.

"But… You said you only helped those who had a chance…" She slowly said.

"I did say that, but it doesn't mean that I've done it before. That being because you're the first one to actually accept my bet."

She narrowed her eyes at him, glaring with doubt.

"You don't believe me? Would I be sitting here now knowing that I have a week to live?"

Marisa said nothing. She did nothing but sit across from him and stare with her expressionless eyes, thoughts bubbling her head.

_The first one? What happened to the others, why didn't they accept the bet? …It's because I'm that gullible and stupid. _

She stood up, pushing her chair back.

"Hey, where you going?" Joshua asked, surprised at her sudden standing.

She turned to leave, walking as fast as she could. She reached the lobby before Joshua could grab a hold of her arm.

"Let go of me." She hissed, trying to yank her arm out of his grip.

"Whoa, why are you so mad all the sudden?" Joshua asked, easing his hold on her.

"This is a waste of my time. If you're not going to do anything, I might as well just kill you now." She said, lowering her voice in case the waiters and waitressed were nearby.

"This isn't a waste of your time. Believe me, I would have arranged this meeting earlier but I've been so busy. There's only a week left, till then, you can finally kill me."

She only glared at him, annoyed at the time wasted doing nothing but poking at a salad, and a little more annoyed him his hold on her.

"I'm a man of my words."

"How do I know you won't have left the country by then? Or if you have told the police?" She asked hastily.

"Look." He placed both hands on her shoulders to calm her down, though it had little effect as it annoyed her even more to have to now have both hands on her.

"Come with me." He said.

"What?"

"Every day for the rest of this week, I want you to come with me everywhere I go, so you know where I am, then it won't be such a waste of your time."

"Follow everywhere you go? I actually have better things to do." She pushed by him and headed to the doors.

Since the acceptance of this mission, she had to decline several other missions that were assigned to her. Many were given away to the others in The Company, and the rest were just things to do piling up on her desk.

"Please." He called out after her. "Do you want to move in with me?" He then asked.

The question had knocked her completely off guard and stopped her in the tracks.

"M-move in?" She repeated after him, turning to face him.

"Temporarily of course. I mean, I'll give you your space and privacy, anything you need…"

"I… What? Why?" The question baffled her.

"Like I said: that way we're around each other 24/7 and this whole bet won't be such a waste of your time."

"Call off the bet. I don't want to this anymore."

He began to chuckle. "I really hoped you wouldn't have said that" He said lowly, almost ominously.

This was a tone she had never heard from his until now. Admittedly, it spooked her. "…Why?"

"Because now I'll just have to turn you in along with your afflicted organization. 'The Company', is it? That's a pretty funky name."

Marisa said nothing but bite her tongue.

"Gerik, Saleh, Colm, Rennac." He listed. "Tethys, Neimi, Knoll and Cormag. Those are your comrades and friends, right?"

She glared at him, anger fuming up in her. She would have guessed after exchanging names and phone numbers from their last meeting, he would've taken the liberty to look her up in the Government files. For an ordinary person to this would be near to impossible, but being a politician, everything was made easier for him.

"If you cancel the bet on me, you'll get life to prison or even the death penalty. But if you can survive a week with me, you can get off scotch free. I don't know about you, but if I were in your position I would-"

"Fine." She exhaled softly, turning her head to look off to the side.

A smile began to spread itself across his face. "That a girl."

He didn't give her a lot of choice, but for her friends, she would just have to endure one week with the full-of-surprise King. With so much surprises and questions with the man, how would she ensure if he would truly hold up the end of his bargaining?

"But what about the press?" She began, continuing to look off the side, not meeting eye contact with him. "If- No, _when_ the time comes… Won't they suspect me?"

"Make it look like an accident." He merely suggested. "Remember our agreement? You tell me your decision on that day and if you choose to… You know, then I'll burn every record and evidence I have on you. You can come witness it if you want."

Sounded reasonable.

"And No offense," he continued, "but without me, you'll be a nobody. The people don't even know your name. You're 15 minutes of fame will be over just like that." He empathized his statement by snapping his fingers.

"Thanks." She responded sarcastically.

"No… But uh, this'll be good." He assured as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"How do you know I won't ambush you in your sleep? Or poison the food you eat?"

"I trust you that you won't."

She couldn't help but scoff at his response. How could one trust each other in their type of relationship?

"You trust me? The person who tried to kill you three times?" She finally raised her head to meet his eyes.

"So?" He shrugged off, follow by a half grin.

"So? I don't understand you…" She said quietly, mainly to herself, but Joshua managed to overhear.

"I'm just a guy trying to make the world a better place." He stated. "Anyways, we can get you all moved in by today.

"T-t-oday?"

He ignored her lone stuttered word and headed over to the curtained window. With a flick of the hand he lifted the curtain to peer out the window.

"The 'razzis are still here… But Forde and Kyle are out there." He turned around to face Marisa. "You ready?"

"For what?"

"We're going to leave." He walked over to wrap an arm around her shoulders. Seeing her glare at his action, he instructed, "for appearances."

They started towards the doorway, or more like Joshua dragged Marisa out, before Joshua yelled out to the people in the restaurant to place their meals on his tab.

Once the doors swung open, all that was seen was blinding lights and hear was a roar of questions and shuttering from flashing cameras.

"Don't look them directly in the eye." Joshua mutedly said into her ear. "They'll eat you alive." He joked.

"Ah… Yeah." Was all Marisa could say as she was led by Joshua to the limo waiting for them.

"But you know, it wouldn't hurt to smile." Joshua commented.

_Maybe a little bit. _

She preferred not to smile at the littlest things; a smile is only meant for what's enjoyable to the person. This particular event was something lest of the joy.

Again, with the awaiting vehicle just a couple of foot away from them, the flashing lights and shouting questions thrown at her seemed to make the journey longer than it should be.

_Now how am I going to explain this to Gerik and the others?_


	6. The Risk

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem**

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Risk  
**

_Momma? Papa?" The little girl cried as she sat beside the lifeless bodies of her parents._

_"Momma?" She shook her mom once, her blonde little curls bopped up and down as she did. She turned to the side to face her dead brother. "Andrew?" She called out, her voice barely a whisper and on the verge of tears._

_The way the girl called out her brother's name, it sounded like 'An-druw'._

_How the family laughed and giggled at her pronunciation just moments before Marisa intruded on their family time._

_"It's 'An-drew', darling." The mother said softly._

_"Can you say 'An-drew?" The brother asked sweetly._

_"An-druw!" The girl chirped with a smile._

_The little girl looked up at Marisa. "Help them." She pleaded. Her eyes were round and glassy, and the bottom of her lip quivered._

_The girl was either in a state of shock or was far too traumatized to notice the stranger standing before her was covered in the blood of her family. Marisa had __ done j__ust the opposite of 'help' to her family._

_Target(s): The Dunder family._  
_Bernard Dunder - 42 years old._  
_Done._

_Cecilia Dunder - 39 years old._  
_Done._

_Andrew Dunder - 20 years old._  
_Done._

_Olivia Dunder - 5 years old.  
_

_Marisa peered over the mother's body. She was beautiful for her age. Her blonde hair was matted with blood as it slicked onto her body and dress. Her hands were quite rough looking, probably because of all the cooking and cleaning she had done for the family. The lines and callouses on her hands showed how much the mother loved and dedicated herself to her famil. From preparing breakfast every morning, to washing their precious thread of clothes, and working hard to scrub their marble based home... Now another plate of scrabmled eggs and toast will never be prepared again.  
_

_The father laid still, blood was bleeding out from the slash Marisa made across his throat. Marisa could see the deep lines and crevasses of his laugh lines around his mouth. he was known for his hearty laugh and sense of humor.  
_

_Andrew's eyes were still half open, his dark set of brown eyes were starting to fade away. He was in his third year of University, on his way to become a lawyer, just like his father. He was the golden child and student, full of potential to make a difference in the future._

_Marisa looked into the little girl's eyes once more and tears were streaming down her puffy pale cheeks._

_"Please?" She begged._

_Marisa felt her daggers slipping out of her trembling hands, put held on tight in her blood stained hands. She looked off to the side and cursed under her breath. She took a gulp before turning to the little girl once more._

_"I'm sorry." She said softly._

_She shut her eyes tightly and raised one of her dagger. She swung it once and felt it had made contact with something._

_Her eyes remained shut as warm, moist liquid splattered onto her face._

* * *

Marisa sprang up in bed, drenched in cold sweat and gasping for air. She covered her face with her hands as she reminiscent on her vivid dream.

_No… It wasn't a dream._ She stated.

She sat back, plopping herself on her bed with her limbs stretched out. Sighing, she stared up at the ceiling, expecting to see the usual white bumps formed along the interior, but instead, was staring at a light grey smooth surface.

She glanced around the room. It wasn't her room. It was more spacious and therefore empty, with the expectance of the boxes of her clothes in the corner.

That's right: she lived with Joshua now.

By estimation of the brightness of the sunlight peeking out from her window blinds, she would have guessed it was late morning. She looked at the digital clock on the bed stand to confirm her guess.

10:56 am.

She got out of bed (complimentary from Joshua and admittedly a lot comfier than her bed at her apartment), changed into some sweat clothes and headed out to the hallway.

Navigating through the place wasn't too hard; the knowledge of it was still fresh in her mind from her last unpleasant visit.

The bathroom she arrived at was the very same of which Joshua had tied her up in. The rope he used to tied her was still lying near the pole; either he wasn't much of a cleaner or he left it there to mock her. She simply rolled her eyes and went to brushing her teeth.

It had hardly been a day since she moved in. With the arrangement and moving of furniture, the two had hardly any time to talk aside from the the subject of a photograph Marisa discovered on a shelf of Joshua and a very beautiful blonde woman.

Not that that was any of importance; Marisa merely picked it up to place is elsewhere while she moved the shelf it sat on. But she found it slightly odd how he tried to stir away from the subject, being as open as he was.

_"Oh… Don't mind that." Joshua said as he reached to grab the framed photo out of Marisa's fingers._

_She would have left the small conversation as it was if the photograph hadn't been snatched so hastily from her loose grip. The sharp corner of the wooden frame grazed along her finger as Joshua retrieved it and discarded it in a box somewhere. It stung, as any sharp objects in contact with human flesh would, but it wasn't bleeding, instead, there was left a pinkish mark._

_"I was taking it off to move the shelf." Marisa explained slowly, a bit peeved. Not at the small injury he caused on her, but because of his lack of awareness he caused to form the injury on her and failed to apologize._

_He didn't even realize Marisa blowing on her finger to sooth the stinging sensation even standing in plain sight of him._

_"Ah okay, well, I'll help you get some of the stuff off of here."_

_After removing the objects off the shelf, Joshua immediately went to pick up a random box amongst the dozens of boxes laid in the room and disappeared off with it._

Now that she thought about it, that box he carried off it most likely contained the photo.

_I wonder why he was so… Secretive about that…_

She shouldn't care. She normally wouldn't. But a single picture made him practically leap at her and hide it.

She didn't get a good glimpse as she was looking past it rather at it when she picked it up. But she knew for sure from the crimson red hair that it was in fact him, and the long flowy blonde hair trailing alongside him was a woman.

Perhaps a relative or a good friend. Or a girlfriend.

"Hey there sleepyhead." Joshua greeted as Marisa entered the kitchen.

She said nothing but threw a small glance in acknowledgement at him, then went to the cupboards to prepare breakfast for herself.

He had situated himself at the head of the kitchen table, sipping on a cup of freshly brewed coffee, telling from the steam giving off from the drink, and reading the newspaper.

Where she strolled in in baggy sweats, barefoot and hair unkempt, he was the epitome of grace even in pyjamas with his grey silk material robe, peeking out underneath was striped pyjama pants tucked into a pair of brown fuzzy slippers.

It also helped that his hair, about the same length as her, was well groomed enough for one to stroll on over and pet his head.

"I already made us some food." Joshua said after he watched Marisa examine the cupboards for a couple of seconds.

Marisa turned to look at the table.

Across from Joshua laid a plate of eggs, sunny sided up, three strips of bacon and toast with a slab of butter on it. Accompanying the dish was a glass of orange juice.

She looked at the well plated dish then at Joshua. "_You_ made this?"

Being a politician and borderline celebrity, one would only assume he would carry maids out througout his home. But because the purchase of the so called summer home was last minute planned, the time period to hire one was unreachable, leaving just him and her alone in the home.

"Yeah." He shrugged. "It's not that hard to make. Why?"

She was still filled with scepticism. She couldn't make something like that and he was saying it wasn't too hard of a dish to make. The most she could make was toast, that is, if she didn't burn it from leaving it in the toaster too long.

Nevertheless, she walked over and took a seat in front of the meal. She could feel Joshua's eyes on her which made her hesitate to dive in the food.

With the fork in her hand, she looked up at Joshua and returned his gaze.

"Oh, don't worry, I didn't poison it or anything." He assured. Not that she was worried about that, it had been made cleared from him that he had no intention of murdering her, the same though, can't be said for how she felt towards him.

"Did I undercook the eggs? Does the bacon look burnt? Or is the butter not evenly spread?" He questioned after Marisa didn't move so much of an inch from his last comment.

"I haven't tasted it yet." She remarked.

"Well, why haven't you?" Joshua asked.

Marisa only grumbled a few inaudible words then went to scoop up a piece of the delicate egg.

She was watched under the careful eye of Joshua, which he tried to discrete it from behind the newspaper.

"Well?" Joshua asked after Marisa had eaten half of the plate in silence.

"It's… Good." It was better than good. Even for a simple breakfast meal, it was scrumptious, much better than her usual cereal from the box.

But regarding that he had mentioned it was him who made it, she decided not to go further than so much of "it's good", to not feed his ego. For a man who could make a simple breakfast meal and a woman who can't even properly crack an egg open was quite disgracing.

"Just good?" He asked, rather a bit disappointed as he set the newspaper down.

"It's just food." She shrugged.

"Oh I see how it is. It's not up to par to how you make it, right?"

"Sure." She lied.

Joshua folded his arm across his chest and leaned back. "Then, let's see how you would make it, huh?"

"What?" She said quickly, a little too quickly to have made Joshua raised an eyebrow.

"My dish is always the best. If it's just 'good' to you, I want to have a taste of your cooking."

"But I—"

"It's almost lunch, why don't you get started once you're done with that." And then he left the room before Marisa had any time to protest.

"—Can't cook." She finished off lamely to herself.

* * *

"So eh, what is this?"

She looked down at the plate she placed before him. She wasn't quite too sure herself; what used to be the wing of a chicken was now charred and black. As for the rest of the contents, it was undistinguishable, mostly a black and smoky dish. Except for the piece of lettuce she placed on the side. It was rather random of its lone placing, she didn't remember why she had decided to place the vegetable there.

Then again, she wasn't quite sure what she was aiming to make.

"It's chicken, vegetables and potatoes." Marisa answered.

"Is it supposed to be this burnt?" Joshua asked dubiously as he rolled a piece of steaming potato on his plate with a fork.

"Yeah."

"I don't want to eat this." Joshua said after he placed the fork down and shoved the dish away from him. "If you're trying to poison me, you can save this for next week." He joked.

She shyly looked away, sure that he was going to poke fun of her for her lack of ability to cook.

"You can't cook, can you?" Joshua asked.

_Well, obviously… Take a look at that meal I just made._

"And I thought it was a natural ability for girls to know how to cook." He chuckled.

She began to cross her arm over her chest in a defiant manner. "It's not. And I don't care if I can't cook, bake or make anything."

"What would your husband and family say?" Joshua asked in a mockingly appalled manner.

"I don't have one…"

"I mean, for in the future, when you get married and raise a family of your own."

"… You do plan to get marry and have a family, don't you?" Joshua further question after no reply from Marisa.

She did plan on just that to happen. Falling in love with that significant other, marrying them and starting family was the life cycle, the norm, the expectancy. It happens to just about everybody, but because it's the life expectancy, she never thought much about it but that it'll happen when it happens.

The only problem with that was, how could anyone love her? Aside from her neighbour Sid having a flimsy crush on her, who would love the _real_ her?

"I never really think about it." Marisa admitted, avoiding Joshua's eyes.

"And I thought it was every little girl's dream to find prince charming and— "

"It's not!" She exclaimed suddenly. "Not for me anyways." She muttered as she turned to leave the room.

"Hey, I'm sorry." Joshua apologized. From the sound of the chair scrapping along the marble floor, he was going to go after her.

The 'pit-pit-pat' sound nearing her indicated that Joshua had caught up to her. She expected to be grabbed by him again like in restaurant, but the grasp never came.

Instead she turned around to see what was holding him back.

Nothing. He stood with his hands hung in the pockets of his robe and an apologetic expression on his face.

She wasn't quite sure what to say. She had planned to take leave of the kitchen to her room and avoid Joshua for some time.

She opened her mouth to start something but was cut off by him.

"Would you like me to teach you?" He asked softly.

"What?" She looked up at his face and saw he was avoiding her gaze as she was to him before.

"To cook. I'm no chef, but I know some simple dishes." He shot a half smile at her.

An opportunity like this has been offered to her one too many times, mainly from Tethys and Neimi who had desperately tried to teach her. But from many failed experiments, it reached an impossible tangent. Marisa had given up, but her two friends were ever persistent, though she knew they had reached their breaking point a while back.

Sighing, Marisa responded with, "You can try."

* * *

"You want to add the dry ingredients first and then the wet one after, so that it'll mix well." Joshua instructed.

"So… The egg?"

After a nod of approval, Marisa took the hard shelled substance in her hand. She had failed at this many times; breaking an egg seemed simple enough, but it had always resulted in her slamming the egg too hard on the counter or spilling its substance all over the floor.

"Don't tell me you don't even know how to crack an egg." Joshua raised a tentative eyebrow after seeing her hesitate.

"I... Can." She demonstrated by cracking the egg on the side of the mixing bowl. She cracked too hard, splitting the egg completely in half and spilling its contents over the side of the bowl.

"Yeah, you sure can. Just not into the bowl." Joshua commented as he got up from the stool he sat on on the other side of the counter.

He walked over, taking an egg in his hand before he stood beside her. He cracked the egg on the side of bowl, making a small crack in it. He held the egg over the bowl and using a finger, he split the egg open, spilling its contents right into the mix.

"You try." He smiled dauntingly.

Before she could bring the egg down, Joshua gently grabbed her wrist. "Not too hard." He said as he wrapped his hand around hers, guiding it in the process.

It was awkward and silly to have to be guided in a simple process such as breaking an egg. Though she appreciated his patience. With Neimi and Tethys, who would nice and sincere with her, but every once in a little while, an exasperated sigh would escape through their lips.

The only sign of annoyance and frustration shown from Joshua would be a small chuckle or a grin if one could call that annoyance or frustration.

"And there you go." He took the cracked shells from her hands and discarded it into the trash can. "Now take the spatula and mix is evenly."

She took the rubber spatula and started to mix and ingredients together. This, for sure would have to be the easiest of the process, but she was quickly proven wrong when Joshua took the utensil out of her hand.

"No no no, you have to mix it so that the ingredients are evenly spread out. Like so."

She watched as he went about scrapping the sides of the bowl to ensure any of the dry ingredients were mixed with the egg.

"Okay, now you try."

She mimicked his action by holding the bowl with one hand, and rather than mixing the batch in a circular motion, she scraped along the side and folded it, in a layering motion.

"Hey, you got it." Joshua complimented. "But don't mix it too hard, otherwise it'll be too wet." He went to stand behind her, placing one hand on the bowl near her hand, and the other around her hands holding the spatula.

She could feel his breath down her neck, his chest rubbing against her back as he guided her hand in the mixing process and his hand illuminating its warmth onto her hand.

With his arms wrapped around her, she was trapped.

What an awkward position to be in and she immediately felt hot in the face.

They've been in close proximity before and she never felt like this before. Though, to be fair, it had never been quite like _this_.

She tried to remain calm and concentrate on the mixture in bowl. Her attempt at remaining calm only made her stand up stiff and grasp the spatula tightly. Real obvious to Joshua who felt her muscle stiffen up next to him.

"What's wrong? You're kind of trembling." Joshua remarked as he lowered his head over her shoulder to peer at her face.

"I'm alright." Marisa quickly replied as she lowered her own head so her hair would fall to the side to cover her peripheral vision of Joshua.

"You don't sound alright." He further lowered his head in persistence to get a look at her.

She gritted her teeth together and tried to inch away but the space between them limited to how far she could move.

Thinking quickly, she cleared her voice. "What happened to my privacy and personal space?" She addressed.

"Oh… Oh! Right." He took a step back, his arms brushing lightly against her in the process. "Sorry." He apologized.

Marisa said nothing but continued to focus on the mixing the batch in front of her. She let out a quiet and long sigh as the heat in her face began to cool down. From the tap water running, she could only assume he was at the sink washing his hands.

After that, the two worked quietly, with only Joshua talking to instruct her what to do. With no complaints from her, she would assume she did a god job at her various tasks of spreading the mixture in a tray in circular formation to give raise to what will be cookies afterwards.

After placing the tray into the preheated oven, there was nothing left to do but clean up the mess they (or mainly her) had made.

They worked as a team; Joshua washing the dishes and Marisa drying them with a dish rag. After she would dry them, she would stack them up for later proper cupboard placement.

"So I'm curious." Joshua finally spoke. The suddenness of his voice made her jump slightly.

"Do you have anyone in your life? Besides friends?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the dishes he was washing.

"You mean family?" She took the dish he handed her to and began to wipe it. "No. I told you before; my mom dad when I was young and my father's been dead since I was… Thirteen."

"What about a boyfriend?"

She quietly scoffed to herself before reaching to grab a wet bowl. She wasn't sure where he was going with this but whatever it was going, she had a feeling she wouldn't like it.

"No." She responded.

"And why's that?" He only turned his head for a second to give her a glance, which Marisa didn't return. She focused on drying every spec of the wet glassware in her hands.

"What do you think?" She retorted blatantly.

_Please. Tell me why I don't have a boyfriend beside me being an assassin and completely incapable of doing every day's little tasks._

"'Dunno. Thought you would have some slick haired, leather jacket wearing partner who would go with you into the night killing all the bad guys. Like they do in movies."

"Not everything in movies is real." She said.

"Hm. You're right."

She gave him a quizzical glance through the corner of eyes. She had expected for him retort with a witty expression but only came with a flat simple dismissal.

"Do you have someone?" She asked, attempting to carry on the conversation.

"Nah."

His response made her think about the picture she accidentally picked up yesterday. If he were telling the truth, why would he have a picture of an ex-girlfriend? Either he was too lazy to get rid of it or perhaps he still had feelings for her. Or possibly she was just a friend. The possibilities were endless.

"In the past?" She further questioned, rather curious of the woman in the picture.

He paused to say nothing and focused solely on the clattering glassware in the sink.

"Just one woman." He finally responded.

"Oh."

She decided to not further the topic, taking from the flat tone in his voice, she would guess he wasn't feeling too happy about the subject.

"Aren't you going to ask me about her?"

Their eyes still not meeting, she placed a dry rounded bowl on top of a pile of dishes. "Not if you don't want me to." She said slowly.

"No, no… I don't mind."

With the conversation turned to her, she asked the expected question. "What happened?"

"Didn't work out too well. We were young, so I guess that's why."

Not that Marisa expected a heavy detailed description, but she did expect a little more than that. Especially since he wanted to her prolong the conversation.

Her expectancy came up to par when he continued.

"I met her when I went with my mom to a conference meeting in Grado. We were both 16 at the time. She was one of the servants to the Grado family, so as you can tell, that was a big hazard sign. Given my 'troubled' attitude at the time as well…"

He took a moment to finish washing the lone spoon laying at the bottom of sink, then handed it to Marisa.

"She found me trying to talk a Duke out of his money. I was bored, okay?" He chuckled as he threw a glance at Marisa.

"She was scolding for having a negative aura or whatever, talking about God and stuff. I remember thinking 'what the heck is this girl talking about?' To this day, I still have no idea what she was talking about. Then she said 'You're not impressing anyone with that bad boy attitude of yours.' And then I replied back with 'not even you?' Oh, how she blushed."

After finishing washing the dishes, Joshua took off the rubber yellow gloves worn to complete the task.

"She was different from all the other girls I've met. There was something about her that real and sincere... Not like the others that were just in it because I was a prince."

"I wasn't there for too long, but I knew I wanted to keep seeing her. Our relationship was long distanced as you can imagine. She would try to see me whenever she could, I would try to see her whenever I could. She really made me happy, kind of made me forget everything that was going on around and she really liked me… But she also said she couldn't be someone who spent his afternoon drinking and smoking. So I changed for her. I wanted to make her happy, to see her smile, with the very short time we had with each other back and forth."

"I really tried to change. But there was one thing I could not give up. Gambling."

As she would have guessed. From the files she had read on him, the newspaper articles on him, they've all had a mention of him being a notorious gambler. Not to mention the current bet they had with each other.

"Why gambling?" Marisa asked.

"I dunno." He shrugged. "It's just something I do, you know? It's become sort of a lifestyle for me. You can even say it's become my religion, if that's possible."

"I see…" Was all Marisa could reply with. She wasn't quite sure with his viewpoint beside it possibly being an excessive addiction.

"Confused?" Joshua asked, sensing her confusion.

"A bit." Marisa admitted.

"Well, you see," he fully turned his body to her, his hip leaning against the counter, "the way I see it, life is a gamble; everything leads to one thing based on the decisions we make. If we were to have thought differently, our lives would be going a completely different route."

"Like fate? Or destiny?" Marisa said, understanding more of what he said.

"Yeah! Like if I haven't flipped a heads on my coin, I wouldn't have bought this house. Or if I haven't rolled a 6 on the die, I wouldn't have skipped that television interview today."

"You skipped an interview?" Marisa repeated. She did find it rather odd how a politician like him was staying home all day in pyjamas.

"That's not the point." He quickly brushed away. "What is, is that life is just one big gamble. Sometimes you should take a couple of risks once in a while."

"Okay." Marisa slowly nodded her head. "I see. So you couldn't give up your religion." She quoted from him earlier.

He sighed. "That's right. And she broke it off. Couldn't handle all of that, and I don't blame her, I was out of control for a while. We were together for… Three years?"

Three years. Marisa was no relationship guru, but three years seemed like an awfully long time to be with someone. A relationship like that was sure to have spurred into the universal emotion, 'love'.

"Do you… Still love her?" She asked, only pausing to dub whether the question was appropriate or not.

"I did love her. Feelings like that just don't go away for someone, despite the time that has past. But I guess it did for her. Last I heard, she was cozying up with the head of security of Renais."

Unsure of how to respond to that, she apologized. "I'm sorry."

"Nah. We were so young. Time past, things change. We all have to eventually move on."

Marisa could only nod in agreement. Aside from her lack of experience, she would believe what he had said would be true. Although, keeping a picture of an ex-lover would solidify existing feelings for them.

After some moments of silence, Marisa went to put the stacked glassware away, with Joshua helping.

She let the information sink into her. This man before her, despite his nonchalant behaviour and made up philosophical religion, was capable of love. Something she wasn't so sure she possessed.

Moving along to the subject of his philosophical view on life: "life is big gamble, sometimes you should take a couple of risks once in a while."

So why, _why_ the big risk of potentially losing his life to her?


	7. A Game of Roulette

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

Enjoy!

* * *

**A Game of Roulette**

_Troublesome._

She was tireless, sleepless, restless and most of all, troubled.

All she could do was stare up in the darkness that was of her bedroom. Taking a glimpse at the digital clock next to her, she saw it was a little past one. This time was supposed to be used for sleeping, but instead she laid with her thoughts boggling round her head.

It was finally the day to make her decision of whether she chose to leave Joshua alive or dead.

The past six days had had its ups and downs. Many of which consist of Joshua leaving her to attend business meetings and interviews. With nothing to do she had to fend for herself with mindless television. But his long periodic absence was made up by coming home and enticing her into long hour conversation about everything from the ranting of his daily activities to random topics irrelevant to their lives.

They had once engaged themselves in a three hour long discussions on whether the behavior of outer space life was hostile or friendly with Marisa taking the side of hostility and Joshua taking the side of friendliness.

After a rather heated argument, they've both come to terms that outer space life were both capable of being approachable and destructive.

Thinking back, she thought how such a topic of conversation came to be, same goes for the other various ridiculous conversations they had.

It was silly yet fun and engaging.

They did not only just talk; Joshua continued his lessons in cooking. After having to make the alarm detector go off many times, she knew how to bake chocolate chip cookies, prepare toast and eggs, make spaghetti and how to properly cook chicken.

She couldn't have asked for more, but Joshua took a further step and taught her how to do the laundry. She never knew the importance of separating whites from colors, or how to properly wash certain fabricated clothes.

Even though she only knew the basics of it, she felt she was well on her way to become…

_A woman?_

Perhaps.

There was one thing they chose to stir away from talking about: their past.

Though she knew bits and pieces of it from previous discussions, she never fully knew too well in detail of what led him to his troubled teenage years to his disappearance early on and to where he stand right now.

She wanted to know, especially on the detail of him having previous assassins target him and what he did with them, but she could never fully bring up. She had tried, thrice, to subtly bring the topic in her conversation, but Joshua always found a way to avoid it.

He was hiding something that was for sure.

In turn, she never fully discussed her past with him.

Turning to lay on her side, she let out a sigh. In less than twelve hours it was decision time.

She probably would have come a decisive path if it hadn't been for a thump that sounded in the midst of the night.

A thump in the middle of the night. Marisa immediately sat up in bed. It was an odd thump; it was recognizable, yet indistinguishable.

Recognizable in that it sounded like the window to the room below her's. Indistinguishable in that the window should not be sounding like it had.

What was more was that it was the middle of the night, and unless Joshua was feeling hot in his sleep, why open a window whose room is below yours?

This was something she would have to investigate.

She threw on a sweater to cover the tank-top she wore to bed, and took in her hands a meter long metal rod, something she kept by her bed for protection.

Quietly, she made her way out the room. She took not too long to let her eyes adjust to the darkness with the help of street lamps shining through uncovered windows.

Passing by Joshua's room next to her's, she took note that it was closed, a sign that he was sleeping or was to be undisturbed. She took small quiet steps to the stairs.

She stopped at top of the stairs when she heard a series of shuffling from the downstairs area. She listened to hear any more, but it was quiet.

She lowered the rod down. _Maybe it's just the house creaking. Or it's haunted._

Turning, she bumped into something soft yet firm, enough to let out a gasp and raise the rod up in defense.

"Marisa!" Was what she thought sounded out to be Joshua's voice in a whisper.

"Joshua?" Marisa replied trying to make out his silhouette.

"Was that you making those sounds?" Joshua asked, eyeing the rod in her hands.

"No. I heard it too." She responded as she lowered the rod down to her hips.

"What do you think it is?"

"Don't know. Maybe something got knocked over."

"Or it's a burglar. Or a ghost. Or maybe a serial killer!" Joshua said in an eerily voice.

Marisa rolled her eyes. "Maybe. We'll never know if don't check it out."

Joshua took the lead and carefully maneuvered his way to the source of the sound in darkness. Marisa followed closely behind him, her metal rod at bay.

They reached the room with no suspicious acts so far in the journey, except for the door in the room being ¼ open.

"Wait." Marisa whispered as she stood on the opposite side from with the rod raised.

"C'mon." Joshua scoffed. "It's probably nothing."

He swung the door open and turned on the lights. Marisa followed right after him, ready to bring her rod down at whoever (or whatever) was in the room.

Except, there was nothing. The window was closed shut, none of the boxed laid in the room seemed to be disarrange. Nothing out of the norm.

"Huh. It was nothing." Joshua softly grunted as walked to the middle of the room and inspected it with his eyes.

"What made that sound though?"

The deployment of the question couldn't have been any better as Marisa was abruptly up from the ground by a pair of arms wrapped tightly around her neck.

Nearly tippy-toeing the floor and breathless, Marisa remembered the metallic rod in her hand and took half a second to bring it up to where she would guess the head of her assailant would be.

With a groan to indicate her successful target, she was brought down on the flats of her bare feet, gasping for air.

"Come on!" She heard Joshua shout as she was taken by the arm and dragged out of the room, not before taking a look at her assailant on the floor.

His face was in twisted in agony from the mark she had made plain sight on his forehead. Being bald, Marisa could see that bruise had extended a little further back on his forehead. Other than that, he was a well-built man; structurally tall and wide, with a skin tight black tank to show off his rippling muscles. Seeing the arms that were wrapped around her slender neck, Marisa took a gulp to consider she was lucky to still be breathing and not crushed and disfigured to what those arm were capable of.

"Don't worry; I've been in situations like this." Joshua said as he led Marisa through the hallway leading to the entrance lobby of the house.

"I keep the weapons upstairs. When we get there, I'll—"

He was cut off mid-sentence from the sight of two more intruders standing between them and the stairs.

Although they were much scrawnier than the previous assailant, they both held two armed pistols directed at them. They both wore the similar outfit as the other intruder, as for personal attributes, one had a distinctive tattooed cross below his right eye and the other wore a black beanie, his chestnut hair just peeking out below. They couldn't look over the age of thirty.

"Drop any weapons you have and get on the floor." The one with the tattoo instructed.

Joshua shot a look at Marisa, seeing that she was the only one that carried a weapon. She made no hesitation to drop it to the floor, causing a loud clang. Almost in sync, they both raised their hands and slowly made their way to the floor.

"Well, I've never been _this_ kind of situation before." Joshua said under his breath.

* * *

"Why don't you just save us the trouble and tell us where the files are?"

"Nah, I like having you guys go through trouble." Joshua retaliated with a grin.

"You forget I'm the one holding the gun." The man waved the gun inches away from Joshua's face to raise fear in his eyes. But Joshua did not react or so much as flinch at the man's threat.

Seeing the opposite reaction he wanted, the man turned the gun toward Marisa.

There was a twitch at the corner of Joshua's lips as he followed the direction of the gun at Marisa.

Marisa, on the other hand though, simply rolled her eyes.

The same regime had gone on for quite some time. With Joshua and Marisa both tied to chairs, the man with the cross tattoo under his eye (which was found out earlier named Jax) tried to maintain control over the two by waving his gun around their faces.

Joshua seemed to be unaffected by the protocol, only spinning circles around Jax and nip-picking at him.

In a situation like this, the one with the gun pointed at them would want to follow the assailant's orders, but it had been apparent that Jax didn't plan on killing Joshua any time soon lest he told him where these 'specific files' hid. Berg, the largely-build man who Marisa had taken a wack at earlier, was rummaging through the office desk looking for said files in front of them, while the other man, was elsewhere rummaging through wherever room in house.

This put Marisa at a disadvantage. Jax took the opportunity for Marisa to act as the damsel in distress, aiming the gun at her and threatening to blow her brains whenever Joshua chose to not participate. This, then would force Joshua to hint the whereabouts of the files they seek.

The thought at being shot and killed on spot didn't worry Marisa as she knew it wouldn't happen as long as Joshua followed their orders, but playing the role of being the one 'weakness' and disadvantage at Joshua's expenses annoyed her.

The only thing that was keeping Joshua alive was, well, him as he was the source for the hidden files. And the only thing that stood in the way of him telling the assailants the location of files was her.

If they found the files, surely they would kill them both.

Marisa could see Joshua was trying to stall time. Although the destination of the time to be stalled was uncertain, she managed to found a loose thread in the rope tied around her wrists and have been picking at it with her fingers in hopes of loosening it.

She tried to make it inconspicuous and chose to not say a word through this ordeal. From what she observed and gathered so far, it was apparent that the three men were looking for files labelled 'voting forms.' As much confusion there was on Marisa's part, Joshua was equal in the likes, asking why the files were needed.

"Of all the days to call in a hooker." Jax commented as he eyed Marisa.

"She's not a hooker." Joshua defended.

After giving Joshua a rather dubious look, he turned his attention to Marisa, the gun still aimed towards her and his finger held steady on the trigger.

"Then what's your business being here?" Jax questioned.

"That's none of your business." Joshua responded.

"I asked her, not you." Jax hissed. Before continuing, he pulled out a pack of convenient store brought cigarettes. He took one to his lips and lit it up.

"You're quite the talk over at the place."

"Oh really." Joshua replied uninterestingly.

"Yeah. You've killed a handful of our guys already." He paused to blow a puff of smoke out. "'Course, that stops today. But I wonder, how do you do it?"

"You have me mistaken; I've never killed anyone."

"Liar!" Jax roared, startling both Joshua and Marisa, as well as Berg, who paused in the rummaging to look up at his partner.

Running a hand through his spiked raven black hair, he glared at Joshua. "Remember a Randy Spelburg?" He asked gravely.

Joshua took a moment to try to remember. "Should I?"

"You should very well. He was my best friend, killed two years ago. By you."

"I told you, I didn't—"

"Ah, I see. He was just another one of your torture victims."

"Tortur- What are you talking about?"

"Stop playing dumb. I know, everyone knows what you've done to them, you sick bastard." This left Joshua speechless, leaving Jax to continue.

"You put on this what, cool, professional demeanor for the public, and then on your spare time you go and beat people to bloody pulps. Oh, if people only knew the real you."

"Whatever they're telling you, whoever _they_ are, it's not true."

"Shut the hell up." Jax came up to Joshua and brought the gun across Joshua's face, twisting his head to the side from the impact.

Marisa winced silently at the hard thud made from impact of the gun on Joshua's cheek.

"I didn't mind when Tal didn't come back, or Elic. But Randy… He was supposed to meet up with me that night." Jax leaned over to pull Joshua's head up by grabbing a clumpful of his hair. He then brought the gun across his face once more resulting in a groan escaping from Joshua's lips.

Marisa worked fast at loosening the rope. She could only imagine the pain Joshua must be in. The sound of it even hurted her.

"He was a pro, I'll admit. A King who's been spoiled his whole life wasn't going to be problem for him even if it had been for the others. But he never showed. The autopsy showed he was beaten in every possible way. And by who?" Jax crouched down to meet Joshua at an eye level. But with Joshua's head turned to the side, still in pain from the last assault, Jax brought his head to face him with the side of the gun rested on his cheek.

Sitting beside Joshua, Marisa could see the marks on the side of his face made from the gun. The first mark was bring pink while the second was red stretching from the hallow of his cheek to the corner of his lips, causing it to swell up and draw blood.

"If you're going to kill me, just do it now. I'll tell you where the files are." Joshua said, his voice masking the pain he was in.

Marisa immediately snapped her head towards him. Was he going to give up so quickly?

"Just let her go." He nodded his heads towards her in acknowledgement.

She started shaking her head. "No." She said faintly which went unheard as Jax broke out into laughter. He took one last puff of the cigarette before flicking it to the floor near Marisa. He walked over to put it out with a stomp from his boots.

"Is she of some importance to you then? She must be if you want me to let her go. So... What say we call ourselves even?"

Marisa was unsure of where he was going with this, but telling from him menacingly approaching her, it wasn't good.

"You tortured and killed my best friend, so I'm going to do the same to her. And you're going to watch."

A tingle went up Marisa's spine as she watched him take out a combat knife from his assorted belt. Her fingers worked fast at the rope. She wasn't sure how far she had progressed, but telling from the thin the thread had become, she was literally inches away from freedom.

Before making his way to her, Jax twirled Joshua's chair around to fully face her. He headed over to Marisa and cupped her face harshly into his hands.

"I'm going to make sure you burn this into your brain when you're in hell."

With the knife inching towards her, Marisa worked friskily at the rope, jerking her arms around as she carefully eyed the knife. She stole one glance at Joshua in her peripheral vision; he was injured, that was apparent, but his face was welled up in not pain but almost sadness.

Before turning her eyes back to the knife, she saw him mouth the words "I'm sorry."

_No! I just need a few more seconds…_

The knife made contact with her cheek; she could feel the cold object press hard against her skin, ripping it open. At that point she had given up and closed her eyes for her doomed fate.

"Hey Jax…" Berg said suddenly. "You have to take a look at this."

The knife suddenly lifted from her face. "What? What is so important that I have to stop what I'm doing?" Jax yelled.

Her plead had been answered and Marisa took the advantage while Jax faced the other way.

"That woman... She's as assassin."

As on cue, Marisa pulled her arms up hard, in hope that the rope would tear away at one pull. Luckily it did. In the split second for Jax to face her again, she pulled the gun out from his belt then punched his arm at the elbow, sending the knife to fly across the room.

She pulled Jax into her arm, her arm tied tightly around his neck then pulled the gun in Berg's direction seeing that he had reached around for something. With no hesitation she pulled the trigger on him, twice, before turning it to Jax's head.

In the loud range of the two shots fired, she thought she heard someone, presumably Joshua for she did not feel Jax's throat vibrate, yell "don't kill him."

She made her eyes to Joshua to look for some assurance that it was indeed him who shouted.

"Don't kill him." Joshua said as he shook his head.

So it was him.

"Hey guys, I heard two shots. Wh—" The third man, who was unidentified to Marisa, entered the room. Seeing Jax held hostage, he raised his gun at them.

"Drop it or I kill him." Marisa ordered. She cocked the gun to show she wasn't playing around.

After a couple of seconds of intense staring, the man complied. He dropped the gun and slid it toward Marisa.

After taking the gun under her foot, she ordered the man to untie Joshua who then turned on him to tie him up. All while in the process, Marisa tied Jax up not with the weak rope she was tied up with, but a couple of spares the men had brought with them.

With the two tied, Joshua went to pick up the gun that had been slid to Marisa.

Suddenly, Jax gave out a hearty laugh. "Isn't that a little degrading for you? Having a woman fight your battles and an assassin none less."

"Who sent you?" Joshua asked, ignoring the man's comment.

"I wonder; is this how you killed the others?"

"I've told you: I haven't killed anyone." Joshua remarked sternly. He turned his head to view the dead body that laid behind the desk. "I apologize for your friend though."

Although it was strange to hear Joshua apologize for the man's death, especially when it was her who shot him and she was certainly not feeling remorse for shooting the man. But she believe that by showing empathy, Joshua would surely find the information he wanted.

Jax scoffed. "That bumbling idiot wasn't a friend, just a guy who was put on our team. Wasn't all too bright... Whatever, you put him out of his misery."  
The man beside him started to chuckle.

"Hey now. Friend or not, stupid or smart, he was still someone. Possibly an important being in someone else' life."

"Are you sure you should be saying that kind of stuff after what _you've_ done?" Jax retorted snidely.

Joshua took the moment to let out a long, and rather exasperated sigh as he squeezed the bridge of his nose. "What do you think I am? He asked finally. "Some sadistic murderer? Well, I guess I'll live up to my title then."

He reached over to his desk drawer and pulled out a revolver. Being a weapon junkie, Marisa recognized it to be a Welbey revolver.

"Let's play a game, one of my favourites." The men, as well as Marisa watched Joshua as he emptied the bullets out of the gun's chambers, leaving just one. He spun the chamber hard, snapping it shut with a flick of his wrist.

"You know of Jehanna roulette, don't you?"

Anyone who was a fan of gambling or perhaps mobster films knew, especially Marisa who fell in the former category.

"I'll take a shot at each one of us and we'll see where the bullet aims up in. There's a 1/6 chance we'll get bullet." Joshua explained after hearing no response from the men.  
"You may want to stand back." Joshua gestured to Marisa.

She hesitated to move. The idea was absolutely ludicrous! The man was practically putting his life at stake with a random bullet. But with Joshua's eyes hounding her to stand back, she stood at the opposite side of the room.

"We can stop anytime when you want to tell me anything."

Again, with no response from neither men, Joshua lifted the gun to his head which nearly made Marisa flinch.

"I'll start." He made no hesitation to pull the trigger.

Marisa darted her eyes away from him, expecting to hear a loud boom but instead, there was click.

He then pointed the gun to the man with the beanie who had yet to identify himself.

"What's your name?" Joshua asked.

"Alec." The man responded, showing no fear with the gun aimed in his face.

"Well? Care to tell me anything?"

Alec shifted his eyes at his partner, Jax, who made no gesture at him.

"Bite me." Was his response.

Joshua pulled the trigger.

Again, Marisa anticipated for a loud boom followed by a splatter of crimson all over the room, but again, there was just a click.

"Hm." Joshua merely shrugged before turning the gun to Jax.

"I ain't scared of you." He said.

"Good. I wasn't aiming for that." Joshua retorted. "So? Nothing outta you you too?"

Taking Jax's silence as an answer, Joshua went on to fire the gun.

A click.

"That's... Three out of six now?" Joshua asked. He took the gun to his head.

Marisa's heart immediately started to pound faster as she watched him take the gun to his temple. With half the chamber already fired and no appearance from the bullet, the chances of it hidden in the remaining chambers have increased.

Again, no signs of hesitation was shown in Joshua's action as he went to fire the weapon.

A click.

Marisa's heart settled a bit, but watching how Joshua could so easily fire an armed gun to his head was uneasy. Almost as if he was confident the bullet wasn't in the value chamber.

Unless he knew exactly where the bullet was when he randomly snapped the chamber shut, this was a very risky and dangerous game he was playing.

"Alec?" Joshua addressed as he pointed the gun to him. He only returned with a hard gaze, the same he was looking at Joshua with.

Joshua waited longer for a response from the man. The only gesture he made was shift his gaze over to Jax, who only returned with a comprehensive look.

"I'm going to assume you guys are close friends?" Joshua started.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Alec said coldly.

"I would, actually."

"Screw you. Just shoot me already!"

"Bang." Joshua said in sync with the click fired from the gun.

Empty. That just leaves...

"Feh... What are the odds..." Jax scoffed.

"Well, would you look at that. And it's one out of six." Joshua remarked. "Last chance to walk out of here. Want to own up to anything?"

"Whatever. I'm already a dead man walking."

"And what do you mean by that?" Joshua questioned curiously.

The man fumbled with words for a bit, only voicing inaudible sentences before he closed his eyes. "What are you going to do with Alec after you kill me?"

"What do you want me to do?" Joshua answered.

Alec turned to his friend to give a look filled with confusion and sadness. "Jax..." He said quietly.

"I'll let him go. Right now if you want to." Joshua cutted in.

"I believe I'm better off dead." Alec responded.

"I don't understand. It seems as if you two want to dead."

The two tied men both looked at each other but said nothing.

At this point, the situation had turned hopeless, so Marisa thought. Both men were hesitant to say anything and it seemed as if Joshua was also hesitant to fire the gun. If she were in his position, a little physicality should do the job right up. She was about to step up to take Joshua's place when he spoke these simple words.

"I remember Randy now."

These simple words were enough to gather Jax's, Alec's as well as Marisa's attention.

"He's dead, you say?" Joshua asked for confirmation.

"Yes. By you." Jax hastily reminded.

"That's actually unfortunate... " Joshua said, mainly to himself as she cupped his chin with a hand and started pacing a few feet from his standing.

"What is he going on about?" Alec asked.

"Gentlemen." Joshua quickly addressed. "I'm sorry for your friend's death, as well as the others you've mentioned. But I did not kill them."

It sounded much like a declaration or an announcement, much like many world leaders sounds like when talking to the media press. Usually with statements such as this, applause would be sounded. But talking to a couple of already angry and tied-up dangerous assassins, an applause from them is least expected.

"You... Bastard." Jax sounded. "you can deny and lie all you want, but we know the truth."

"Where's your source for such a strenuous lie?"

"The-" Alex stopped himself from saying much more than the lone word.

"I don't know where you heard all this, but let me tell you my side of the story. It's not like you have much choice anyways." Joshua said, referring to their situation of being tied up.

_This ought to be interesting. _Marisa's curiosity regarding his past experience with assassins was about to be told. She made herself comfortable by leaning on the desk Berg was rummaging through a few minutes ago. Never mind that his corpse still laid just a few feet away from her. Catching a glimpse of his dead body, she thought back on Joshua's words of the man still being a person and having some importance in another's life, despite his comrade's harsh words of him.

_That's right: he had parents. _Everyone has parents, that was a given. _He probably had friends. _One or two, everyone has some form of friends in their lives. _Siblings. Extended family. A girlfriend or a wife._

_..._ _And I took that away from him. _

"Ah yes, Randy... He was a nice man actually. He even apologized for having to kill to me." The sound of Joshua's voice broke her deep thinking and take her eyes off the dead man.

"He was waiting for me at my house with his gun ready. He was tricky; when I ran from him, he seemed to be one step ahead of me. But after the tiring game of cat and mouse, the table turned and it was I who had the gun on him."

"I offered him a deal," _The same one he has with me, no doubt. _"In exchange of letting me go, I'd help him turn his life around, turn the other cheek if you understand what I'm saying and I don't report him in. But he refused." Joshua paused to re-adjust his stance by perching himself one the edge of the other desk, smaller than the one Marisa sat on, situated in the room.

"At first I thought he was just a strong trooper, dedicated to the company wherever you guys are from. But... He seemed scared. Now that I think about it, a lot of them were scared. They insisted me to kill them..."

As Joshua took the time to gather himself, Marisa allowed herself to think of the possibilities of why a hoard of assassins would choose death than walking away scotch free. A sense of pride would come into play of course, but would one's pride be damaged so much that they would choose death?

Sure, a bit of Marisa's pride was bit off when she accepted Joshua's bet but that never made her want to die over it.

It was either she just didn't have enough pride as the rest of them, or they were truly afraid of something.

"In the end, he said he wouldn't come after me again if I just let him go. So... He left and I never saw him again."

"Then how do you explain his body turning up mangled and disfigured the next day? I saw his body, I _saw _it! You're just full of lies, you bastard!" Jax nearly roared.

"You're Jax. His best friend since you guys were in put in the same foster home. You guys met fighting over who could run the fastest. You went to school together, you stuck by each other through the toughest time, and your name Jax was given to you by him after your guys' favorite cartoon character."

The splur of words left Jax with his mouth hung open. He was neither denying or confirming these to be true.

"We spoke. For a bit." Joshua stated, authenticating his story. "Why he's dead, I don't know. But you have let me know: if there's someone after you, who is it? They could be the one who killed Randy."

Jax only hung his head, his face unseen, seemingly taking in all this information at his own pace. Joshua let out a sigh, an impatient one as he ran his finger through his hair, starting at his forehead.

"If we don't kill you..." Alec said very quietly, his voice barely a whisper. "They'll kill us."

The very solemn in Alec's voice jerked Joshua's head up. "'They' being who?"

"G-Grado."

The stuttered word peaked her high interest in what had gone out so far. Grado was the largest country on the continent and no doubt the strongest. With its large military bases and forces, it could be easily assumed that any forces that choose to go up against them would result in a tremendous loss. It had never succumbed to that though; Vigrarde, Emperor of Grado, got along with the remainder of leaders of Magvel , and was in fact in good ties with Renais. The reason for its large military base was simply stated by Vigarde himself that in case of any act of war was place on Magvel, they would be the first to come in defense.

The country itself was like any of the other cities on the continent; modernized, populated, economically up to par... Nothing too suspicious, seemingly.

"You work for the Government of Grado?" Joshua asked gravely. Of course this would be quite a turning point for him: finding the one who behind his wanted murder. Of course, it would be for anyone. This, was enough to wash the nonchalant attitude and snarky personality of Joshua's into affliction and dismay.

Without so much of a glance at him, Marisa could tell his was troubled by this new found fact.

Jax and Alec threw a look at each other. One that read that because they've slipped out a secret, there was no turning back for what they've already started.

"I wouldn't say_ for_ the Government really..." Alec started slowly. "Well, more rather it's..."

"Either Yes or no." Joshua demanded.

"...I don't know." Was Alec's answer.

"We work for 'Underground Project.' It's a bodyguard training system." Jax spoke for the first time in a while.

"A bodyguard training system that makes its trainees assassin people?" Joshua said dubiously.

"I thought it was. Everyone did. We went through vigorous training: cutting connection from the outside world, constant abuse from the trainers, and boot camp-like activities." Jax explained, his voice hushed. "It wasn't until a year later when they assigned us the assignment to kill one of the Senators of Carcino, that I knew this was very wrong."

"But we couldn't leave. One reason being we were isolated on a platform building in the middle of the ocean, but because the contracts we signed beforehand was a ten year agreement. I remember that first mission, five guys refused to do it. And they were killed before our eyes. Not only is death is your punishment death if you refuse a mission, but if you fail one... That's..." Jax stopped mid sentence to shake his head. To shake his head of the horrible ideas and images no doubt.

"After that, we were assigned to kill other high class ranking people. I think we've killed more than a dozen people. But the number of men we lost... Do you know how many of us died? We started with 46 men and within the span of 5 years, we're down to 11. Well, 10 now." He made a gesture towards the dead corpse of Berg.

"So why didn't you just leave?" Joshua asked as if it was the obvious choice in any situation.

"You don't think we've tried? They have ways of finding us. And when they find us... Well, consider yourself lucky if you get a broken nose and a bruised eye."

"I see... How long have this operation been going on?" Joshua asked.

"Ah... I believe when we started, 5 years ago." Jax replied.

"And this is operated by Vigarde?" Joshua further questioned.

"I would assume so; the guards and everyone wear the official Grado uniforms."

"Hasn't it cross your minds that it wasn't me who killed your friends, but the people at your so-called 'training system'?" Joshua asked. After no response from the two, he continued. "I let them go, all of them. Death is the punishment for failure, you say? So maybe they were killed for failing to assassinate me."

"But... They said you were the one who one did that to them. Why would they lie?" Alec said.

"Huh... They wanted us to believe it. To fuel us up." Jax concluded. "Your case isn't the first to have happened." He referred to Joshua. "They want to get us mad to work harder. Damn it."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Joshua apologized.

He then shifted his body off the desk and started to pace the room, his arms crossed and his eyebrows furrowed into a troubled look.

The silence in the room only grew with tension, a slightest scruff in the room would have drawn everyone's attention to it.

Finally, turning to the two tied men, Joshua asked "who have you killed?"

The graveness in his voice was ominous, enough to raise the hair on Marisa's arm.

From what have been told so far, Marisa had gathered that the two were from a seemingly training system called 'Underground Project' operated by the officials of Grado. The two have said they, as well as the other participants were unaware of its true motives for training them. She was convinced enough that was the truth spoken from the men expressions. As well as telling from the undercover of the system (hinted in the name no less), it would be assumed that it was meant to be kept quiet. Further more, the exposure of the harshness and strictness of this training would be a disastrous downward in Grado's reputation. Their targets were high ranked people, that of which included Joshua, who had quite the run ins with some of their men. After killing their own men, they blamed Joshua for the responsibility of their death.

Why Joshua, along with their previous victims, were targets, was unclear.

The question Joshua had asked was somehow irrelevant and rather, abruptly brought up. Marisa felt they had gathered all the information they needed. What should be asked was what were they going to do now they had what they wanted.

That said though, it got Marisa thinking about her mission to assassinate Joshua. If the 'Underground Project' men were so well-trained, why ask for another company to do their job? Perhaps given Joshua's ability to fend most of them off, they got desperate and called in for outside help.

But what of their more recent kill, Princess L'Arachel? Given the reports and known knowledge through the media, she did not seem the type who could defend herself well.

Just when she thought she was clear on everything, more questions are brought up. Troubling questions they were.

"I told you: we were given over a dozen people. You can't expect us to remember all of them."

"You're right, I can't." Joshua easily dismissed, "but would my mother, the Queen of Jehanna be on your list?"

After giving it some thought, "... She was." Was Alec's response.

What a surprising turn of events things have turned, would be how Marisa would describe it. To her knowledge, Joshua's mother died of natural causes, and now to learn that she was assassinated...

In the soaps Tethys always watched, this would be the pivotal point, of which the characters in the show would gasp and sometimes lash out at each other for finding out an ugly truth. She wasn't sure how he would react, his mother was one of the few people he would consider important in his life.

His expression had not changed. His stance had not change. He was unmoving, almost stone even.

Suddenly, he made his way out the room.

His sudden absence left everyone in awe.

Not knowing what to do, it was as if it were her natural instinct to follow him out, avoiding the awkward look from the two tied men.

Joshua didn't leave very far, just stepped out into the hallway.

He ran a hand through his hair before clasping a hand on the lower part of his face, only to have realize that his previous wound was still in pain that he turned his back to Marisa.

"Are you alright?" She wasn't sure what to say in a situation like this, but the casual question should do for now.

"Not really." Joshua grumbled.

Sensing his hostility, Marisa remained silent. She wanted to do something, anything. Some comfort words, perhaps a pat on the shoulder. Her fingers fidgeted as she tried to decide what to do for the man in need.

_God. I am so awkward... _She sympathized for herself. The only person she should be sympathetic for was Joshua, she knew. _Let's add inconsiderate to the list. _

She drew out a long sigh. "I'm sorry... About your mom." She started. "I didn't know she... Died that way."

_Argh, too soon to bring that up?_

She crossed her arms over her torso, feeling a bit idiotic to have brought it up.

"No one knew. It was a cover up." Joshua stated, his back still to her.

"Why?" Marisa brought herself to ask after a prolonged silent.

"An assassination of a Queen or anybody would have caused an uproar. The country didn't need any of that at the time. Instead, the head of security went to investigate on their own. Three years... Now I know it was Grado."

"I'm sorry." Marisa apologized again, and quite lamely at that.

"That would... Explain all the unexplained deaths that happened recently... Both the Queens of Frelia and Renais, the executive manager of Wing Enterprise, two of the senators of Carcino. And L'Arachel. But why?" Joshua spoke quietly to himself.

He surprised Marisa by suddenly turning around to enter the room, brushing by her. She followed in shortly after.

He took the nearest of the two men, that being Alex and took him by the shoulders.

"Those files you needed, the- the voting forms? Why does Vigarde need it?" Joshua inquired.

"I- I don't know. I really don't!" Alec exclaimed, surprised by being taken the shoulders abruptly. "We were told to go after you and the paperwork, that's all!"

Convinced at his answer, Joshua let go, turned his head to the side and quietly cursed to himself.

He was frustrated, it was evident. Given all the information they have discovered, there was still much to be uncovered.

Marisa was feeling what he felt; all this newly found information played a big part of the mystery that shrouded Joshua and his past as well as scandalous on Grado's part.

"Shit." Joshua swore loudly. "He's trying to wipe out the competition."

The question on Marisa's mind, as well as the other two, was 'what competition?' It was needed to be asked as Joshua continued to explain himself.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone this... But there's going to be an election, four years to come. This election is going to decide who's going to be the grand governor of Magvel as a country."

"Wait, we're going to be made into one country?" Jax asked.

"Wh- Why in the hell do that?" Alec then asked, equally surprised as Jax.

The idea sounded too crazy to be true. To form a whole continent as one was sure to bring an uproar to some civilians. In Marisa's preference, she didn't care as long as she had some place to live.

Joshua shrugged. "I don't know. Those guys are crazy up there. Share resources? To end feuds?"

_Hm. Looks like someone didn't pay much attention at a meeting._

"So what are these forms?" Jax questioned.

"Potential governors are given these forms to fill out if they want to run in the election. I haven't filled mine out, I'm not sure about the others it would make sense, for him to kill me and get those forms."

Marisa nodded in agreement. It would make sense, seeing as that would be the logical explanation.

Joshua made his way to over to the window on the other side of the room, his hands both placed on the back on neck and his head craned upwards to the ceiling as he let out a long exhale.

"Marisa." He called over and she quickly obliged.

"Yeah?"

"I need you to do me a favour."

"Sure."

The look on his face made him look he was deep in thought, possibly formulating a plan. Which made Marisa weary. Whatever he needed from her was probably a big deal.

Drawing a breath through his mouth, he responded with "I need you to kill to me."

As she thought, this favour was a _very _big deal.


	8. The Challenge

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

Enjoy!

* * *

**The Challenge**_  
_

_"Hello?" Marisa answered groggily into her cell phone. _

_After receiving very little to no sleep, she was not in the mood be so abruptly awaken by her buzzing phone. _

"Did you do it? Did you actually do it?" Asked a very eager Gerik.

"Do what?"

"Ah, you did, didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said as she rubbed her sleepy eyes.

"Okay, I'll play along. You finally assassinated Joshua, right?"

Marisa quickly sat up, kicking off the blanket that once comfortably enveloped her body.

"Oh yeah. Yes, I did do that." She said awkwardly.

"Are you okay?" Gerik asked concernedly.

"Just... Tired." She kicked her legs over her bed now that she was fully awake and alerted.

"I bet you are. Hey, well, we're having a celebration in commemoration of your kill. I know how hard you worked."

"Uh, sure."

"Great. See you then." With that, Gerik hung up.

After she hung up, she checked the time on the phone.

10:28am.

She had less than three hours of sleep. Despite the lack of rest she got, she felt oddly refreshed, as if the world have been lifted from her shoulders.

Marisa walked into the bathroom and got sight of herself.

Unfortunately her mood did not match her appearance. She was a mess: dark eye bags were starting to form under her eyes, giving her eyes the appearance of looking puffy. Her face was sickly pale and her hair was tangled in knots in all sort of places.

Even after a shower, her face was still shrouded in the looks of an insomniac.

Normally she would dismiss it, not caring for how she looked especially if she was just going to Gerik's place for a small celebratory lunch, but in order to require some time off from 'The Company', it was basic courtesy to make yourself look at least presentable.

She dabbed a bit of some drugstore makeup concealer underneath her eyes. It worked. To some degree. She wasn't a makeup expert like Tethys whose skin always looked flawless, any attempt of wearing makeup next to her would make her work look sloppy. For that, she never wore make up. Saved for a hassle though; no constant worrying of having your eyeliner smeared or your false eye-lashes out of place.

As she placed the concealer tube back in the mirror cabinet, a roll of container fell out and into her sink.

She picked it up and examined it. It was her favourite lip gloss from back in her teenage years. She had wondered where it had gone to.

Though she hardly wore makeup, she smeared a dab of it onto her lips, despite the possibly of it being expired.

_Does makeup even have expiration dates?_

She shrugged as she applied it on.

The need for this excessive cosmetic was not just to look presentable, but to her expense, less suspicious.

For where she was going and the time she need off, it would require her to look _very _presentable_._ Maybe even 'Tethys' presentable.

* * *

"Congratulations!" Everyone gleamed.

Their congratulated greet was followed by a shower of color confetti.

Having been rained on by small scraps of colored paper, Marisa only glared at her friends. But her glare had little effect on them as they continued to smiled brightly at her and blow party favours. They all had had cardboard party hats on. Only Knoll, Saleh and Rennac were the only ones displeased with their party look.

Marisa took a look at everyone. It wasn't everyday someone throws a party in celebration of killing another.

This was a first; it was not like they celebrated every time one of them killed someone.

"Why the celebration?" Marisa asked.

"Well," Gerik began as he wrapped an arm around Marisa. "Just for all the hard work you've done."

"And the money you've racked in for us." Rennac added. With that comment, it earned him a nudge to the side by Colm.

"Well, for all that hard work I've contributed here, can I have some time off?" Marisa asked bleakly.

"W-What?" Gerik gasped, and telling from the other's expression, that was their response as well. It was as if her question had froze time: the idle conversation between the few had stopped, their glares off elsewhere was turned to her, and the cake that was being scarfed down moments before by Colm was sitting on the plate, earning to be eaten.

"A vacation." Marisa replied slowly, making sure everyone understood her. Without so much of a blink from the crowd, she finally registered the reasoning for their seemingly shocked state.

She had never requested time off, or taken a break from her work for that fact. The only time she would ever stop was when she slept or ate. The others though, their combined vacation time average would be every two weeks.

The suddenness of her request not only surprised them, but could leave them suspicious.

She had not carefully thought this out.

Clearing her voice, she began her reasoning. "I went to see a physician. He told me that I should go travel a bit and clear my mind. Eh, for my health."

"_For my health?" Well, that was poorly worded._

"I guess... I mean that sounds reasonable, you have been working non-stop for a while..." Gerik responded with ease. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Are you sure you're fine?" Rennac asked, appearing almost out of nowhere beside her. "I mean, I know I've questioned your mentality a lot, but you're wearing make-up." He learned in towards as he waggled a finger at her face.

"N-No! I'm not." Marisa lied lamely as she brushed Rennac's hand away.

After the application of her several year old lip gloss, she felt she lips stood out too much, which then she tried to balance out by applying eye make up. But after that, the contrast of the area she applied make up on clashed too much with her sickly pale skin. Which then she applied blush onto her cheeks.

And maybe it was because she didn't feel she look decent enough that she started layering the cosmetic onto her face.

Perhaps she added a bit too much.

"Oh, you are. I thought you looked different today." Said Gerik.

"Ohh, Marisa! Let me see!" Squealed Tethys as she cradled Marisa's face into her hands.

If it weren't for the crowd forming around her, she would have nudged her head right out of Tethy's pedicured hands.

"Wow! You look so pretty!" Neimi commented.

"Hmm." Cormag grunted suspiciously. "You're asking for some vacation time and you're all dolled up." He stated.

"Are you taking this trip on your lonesome?" Saleh asked.

"Where are you going to be travelling?" Knoll added in.

"Aha! You're going with someone with a lover, aren't you?" Colm accused.

_Is it me, or do they just love picking on me?_

"No! I haven't decided where to go just yet. And I'm going by myself. Who would I take with me?" She said as she stepped away from the too close for comfort crowd.

"Okay, okay everyone." Gerik chimed in as he pricked Marisa away from everyone. "If Marisa wants to take a break, let her. It's not any of our business to be nosey in what she does."

"Thank you." Marisa thanked under her breath.

"I guess this congratulate party turned into a farewell party." Gerik commented. "So... Let's enjoy these last moments with Marisa!"

As everyone clamoured, Marisa went in to ask Gerik a question, careful that the others didn't hear. "By the way... How did the news play it out?"

"Oh, you mean _his _death?" I'm pretty sure they're still playing it on the news, I mean, he is- er, was a pretty much a big deal." Gerik grabbed the remote controller and turned on the flat screen.

_"... Many, many, MANY people are horrified at the very recent death of King Joshua Ladoe."_ Reported the news anchorwoman. _"This morning, around 6am, an explosion was caused in his newly purchased summer home in Valley Peak. A witness, who was his neighbour taking his daily jog claimed that he saw King Joshua enter the home before the explosion happened. His body has yet to be found, but because the the explosion was big enough to take out most of the home, police speculate that his body was destoyed."_

A Simple story, but all that mattered was everyone believed Joshua was dead, and no one suspected anyone. Yet. If she had more time, she would have made look like an accident, but at least the job was done.

"Strange. I never took you for an explosion-y, bomb-y type of person." Rennac said as he suddenly hovered beside her.

Rennac sure made a habit of making sudden appearances.

Knoll sighed. "Another good bomb wasted on just one person..." He referred to the previous incident with Princess L'Arachel.

The bomb she had used was much different from the one Rennac had used on L'Arachel. The one she used was big enough to take out a 10 story building. But Marisa had no choice to use it since it was the only kind of explosive she had in possession.

"Marisa, what was it like being a King's girlfriend?" Neimi asked curiously.

"Yeah, and what was it like being in the spotlight? I swear, every newspaper I read mentioned you as the 'mystery girl." Colm added in.

"You don't read the news." Cormag mentioned.

"Okay, well, every newspaper that I walked by. Happy?"

"Speaking of which, you should probably lay on the down-low, in case any of those reporters and police question you." Gerik advised.

"Did you uncover anything from being with him?" Saleh asked.

So many questions, so little answers. As well as an added suggestion and a fact about Colm not reading the papers, although that was already evident.

"Not really." Marisa answered to Saleh's question. "I thought he had information, but turned out he didn't." She dismissed easily.

"And being in the spotlight and a King's 'girlfriend' is no fun." She addressed to Neimi's question.

With a nod and a "I see," they dispersed to their own little activities, except for Rennac, who idly sat by on the couch, monitoring her conversation. He was still perched on the couch long gone everyone had left.

"What?" She asked, suspicious of his watchful eye on her.

He continued to stare some more, then got up.

"Nothing." He shrugged as he moved away.

She watched as he left the room.

_Rennac was all type of things: annoying, lazy, greedy... These could very well sum up his work ethic._

_But never, even on missions with him, has she saw him look this suspicious as he was just now._

* * *

_Rat tat tat. Rat tat tat._ Were the sounds her fingers made as she gently drummed the oak counter.

With her head perched onto her other hand, she watched Sid, the bartender, pour beer into the mug.

After the usual exchange of greeting and handing her her beer, Sid left her to herself. She then rose the mug to her lips.

She let the cold liquor seep down her throat, and exhaled silently, letting the drink's sour residue tingle her tongue.

"What are you doing here, Rennac?" She asked as she placed the mug down.

There were no response, but that didn't make Marisa doubt her sneaky friend was amongst her presence.

After a few seconds later, a response sounded from a familiar voice."Man, I can never snoop around you, can I?" Rennac said as he pulled up a stool beside Marisa and sat on it. "How long did you know?"

"Since I left Gerik's."

"Hey." Rennac called over to the old bartender. "I'll have what she's having." He said as he nudged his head towards Marisa.

Sid nodded and went back to the beer faucet.

"So..." Rennac sighed. "This is where you go to, huh? Kinda old... And dirty..." He said as he looked around the small pub.

"Why are you here?" She asked dubiously. Despite them being 'close friends', they have never taken the time out of their schedule to actually hang out with one another outside The Company's headquarters.

Added to that of his odd behavior displayed earlier, one could only be in disbelief.

"What? Two friends can't have a drink together?"

"Not if one doesn't want to." Marisa said curtly before she took a sip from the mug.

Before he began to talk, Sid handed him the mug of beer and went away. Then he leaned in towards Marisa and in a low voice said, "there's something suspicious about how you assassinated Joshua."

"How so?" Marisa said, keeping her tone emotionless as she shifted her eyes to Rennac.

"You used an explosion. You _never _use explosions." Rennac confidently stated.

Marisa shrugged. "It was a last resort for me."

Not buying her reasoning, he leaned in even closer, the tip of his nose nearly brushing up against ear. "What went on between you and him?"

The warm air from his mouth trickled down her neck, instantly making her flinch away from him.

It was no doubt he was suspicious. Despite being possibly the most incompetent in The Company, Rennac did have his perks, he was, after all, a spy. And could be a good one if he actually tried.

"That's none of your business." She tried to gulp down as much as she could from her drink, then took out a bill of money and slapped it down on the counter.

It was a shame she couldn't finish her drink.

"I killed him. That's all." She said before getting up and leaving the place.

"H-hey!" Rennac followed her out.

Marisa huddled her arms around herself as a blast of the cool night wind blew around her.

"So you're leaving. When are you leaving? Where are you going? When are you going to be back?" He questioned, trying to keep up with her pace.

"Why don't you leave me alone?" Marisa said angrily as she turned around to face Rennac.

The annoyance and anger she felt gradually dispersed when she found a rather seedy looking person standing not too far from them.

It was nearly midnight. Usually nobody would be roaming these part of the town this late at night. The fact that he was just standing under a light pole, reading the newspaper added on to his suspicious character.

Who reads the newspaper at the end of the day?

He was a tall man, his build mainly covered by a beige trench coat. He was probably in his 30s and he had dark brown shaggy hair.

He started to walk up to the two.

"Excuse me, but you don't happen to be Marisa Petrine do you?" He asked.

Marisa quickly looked the man up and down.

"No. You got the wrong person."

"Oh, sorry about that." The man replied as he nodded his head apologetically to her. She waited for the man to make the first move and leave, but he continued to stand there, so it was Marisa who turned around and walked away.

"Do you know who that is?" Rennac asked in a hushed tone.

"Obviously not."

"Well, I can tell you that he's not with the police... And that he's following us." She gave Rennac a glance and could tell he was not lying. As mentioned earlier, Rennac did have his perks.

Marisa fought the urge to look back to see.

"Come on." She said. "We'll just... Keep walking around until he leaves us alone."

"What if he doesn't? It's friggin' cold." Rennac shuddered.

They were about to cross the street when they spotted another man just standing around on the other side. This man had his back against the wall as he lighted a cigarette. His distinct characteristic was shrouded by the darkness.

"Looks like out stalker has a friend..." Rennac said. They avoided crossing the street and continued walked down the neighbourhood with their pace quickened.

"Got any ideas? I should let you know, I don't have a weapon on me,..."

_Damn. _She didn't have a weapon either. Her supplies were left in her car parked in the underground parking lot of her apartment.

"Guess we'll just have to run." She suggested.

"Huh?"

She pulled Rennac by the arm and led him into the alley nearby.

Unfortunately, Marisa believed this alley would be the one that leads out to two neighborhoods, but this one was simply an alley. With a dead end.

"Opps." Marisa said to herself as they ran to the brick wall.

"Great. Just great. Do you not know your way around here?"

"I don't see you coming up with ideas." Marisa retorted.

They both turned around just as the two men approached them. As they did, they each took out a gun and pointed it at them.

One of them pulled out a pile of wrinkled papers from his pockets and shifted his eyes back and forth between the papers and the cornered two.

"Yeah, it's definitely them." The man said.

"You're coming with us." Said the other man.

"We ain't going no where with you." Rennac said. "Just who the hell are you guys and what do you want with us?"

"We've been notified that you guys failed to kill your targets, Princess L'Arachel and King Joshua."

_What?_

_She wasn't so much as bewildered that these two strangers found her out, but to learn that Rennac didn't kill his target was probably equal to finding out that Tethys did not get some augmentation work done. She claims to be all natural, but Marisa has some doubts._

She turned to face Rennac to find some confirmation, but he said nothing.

She took his silence for it being true.

"If you tell us where you've hidden them, we might consider sparing your lives. Of course, if you don't, we have ways of finding them." They said as they approached the two.

Then, the sound of tires screeching across the pavement and a blinding light shone on them.

"What the-?" Exclaimed one of the men.

Marisa and Rennac quickly realized it was a car driving at them and they quickly dodged out of the way, landing on a pile of garbage.

They watched the as the 1990 black Cadillac ram into both men, causing them to fly a few distance and land harshly on the ground.

"Come on!" Shouted the driver.

Rennac and Marisa both gave each other a look, but didn't hesitate to scramble to their feet and enter the car. The two sat in the back seat as the car backed out of the alley, nearly hitting an oncoming car.

As they sped away, Rennac and Marisa both looked out of the back window to see if the men had recovered, but the streets laid empty.

"Okay," Rennac began as he faced the front. "And just who the hell are you?"

Marisa, too, faced the front and stared at the driver.

From where she was seated, she was diagonally to the right behind the driver. He had short choppy, black hair down to his chin, a dark brown beret tilted slightly to the left on his head. There was a nose ring on the right of his nostril as well as multiple piercings on his right ear.

He turned to face Rennac, but his eyes met with Marisa's.

His dark bangs were shuffled underneath his hat, almost hiding his crimson eyes underneath the mess. But Marisa recognized those very same eyes as a particular person she knew...

He then shot her a wink.

"The name's Blake Bastian! Pro poker player." He happily announced before turning his attention to the road.

_Really? _

Marisa scoffed.

She wasn't too familiar with the associated organization called 'Identity Change', besides the fact that they give their clients a new appearance and life, thus its name. Everything about a client's previous life is erased and forgotten, giving the client a full focus on their new 'self.' Any reason anybody would undergo this could be to start anew, run away from something, dissatisfaction with their previous life...

The reason Gerik would list Identity change under his contacts would be in case someone from The Company got found out.

Joshua's new career was just as ridiculous as his appearance.

Hearing Marisa's rude scoff, he addressed it. "What? It's believable."

"Maybe in your dreams."

"I don't understand why you must ridicule my dreams."

Ignoring his comment, she approached the bigger issue. "We were supposed to meet tomorrow, what are you doing here? ...Were you following me?"

"Well, consider yourself lucky that I did. What did those men want with you?"

Before she spoke up, Rennac chimed in.

"Heh... Just as I thought."

She had almost forgotten he was there.

"You're King Joshua Ladoe, aren't you?" Rennac asked confidently.

It probably wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Even if that person was Rennac.

"Wait, he knows?" Joshua asked as he whipped his head around, making the car swerve to the left.

"Eyes on the road." Marisa pointed. It had occurred to her that she wasn't wearing her seat belt, so she strapped herself in. She wasn't confident in Joshua's skill of driving, but she would've assumed that growing up in royalty, he would've been driven around all of the time. And seeing how abruptly he drove the car into the alley, and the few bumpy distance they have travelled, it wasn't too good.

"Ahh, Marisa. You sly dog." Rennac chuckled. "I knew there was something going on. What's the full story, huh?"

"What?" Marisa exclaimed. "What about you? Those guys said you didn't kill Princess L'Arachel."

"She's not dead?" Joshua asked as he looked at Rennac through the rear view mirror, but the two ignored him for that it was evident to them they were gradually approaching a dispute.

"I'm not telling you anything about her until you tell me what's going on here."

"What's going on here is none of your business." Marisa retaliated.

"As of my business is to you."

The two glared at each other for quite some, the prolonged silence bothering Joshua.

"Sorry to interrupt your... Conversation, but where are we headed to? I've been driving around in circles for a while."

"Fine." Marisa said sternly, still glaring at Rennac. "I'll tell you. Only if you tell me your story afterwards."

Rennac nodded assuredly, proud that Marisa had given up. "Will do."

She sighed heavily before she began. "It started when..."

* * *

"Wow... So this thing called Underground Project..." Rennac said.

Marisa nodded.

"...Is run by Vigarde, the Emperor of Grado... Who is behind the deaths of all these high ranked class people that's been happening lately. All just so he can become the future Governor of Margvel?"

"That's right." Marisa confirmed, arms crossed over her chest as she heaved out a sigh.

The strain on his face indicated to Marisa that he was still figuring out the situation, even after being explained a couple of time by Marisa.

"So... Why were we hired if he has these goons working for him?" Rennac finally asked.

"He had limited men and they were dwindling down fast." Joshua responded, merely shifting his head to the side to glance at the two.

"And now he's after us. Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Joshua asked. "He's enforcing the rules he had on the Underground men on you guys."

"That rule being...?"

Marisa rolled her eyes. They had gone through this just minutes before. It wouldn't surprise her if he A.D.D.

"You fail to kill, you get killed."Joshua casually said.

"Ah, well," Rennac shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "How on Earth did they find us out?"

"'Dunno. That's what we're going to find out." Marisa replied.

"You guys are seriously going as a two man thing on this? You do know that's like the entire country against you two?" Rennac said dubiously.

Hearing it come out from the mouth of the other, it did sound ridiculous. But after several arguments and debate from the night before, it was Joshua who came to the decision.

She had figured being a King and all, he would have his country's militia to back him up. But he had pointed that an upfront confrontation wouldn't do any good without the lack of evidence, their only evidence being Jax and Alec, who were on the other side of the planet.

Joshua had decided to let the two men go, not just out of his house, but as far away from their abusive company. To ensure their safety, he personally bought them plane tickets out of the country along with escorts to guide them.

A rather generous deed he had done for them, the reason for it as Joshua simply stated "they had enough."

"Instead of a full out confrontation, why not do it quietly?" Marisa had asked. Again, Joshua brought up a very good point of Vigarde not stopping until he was dead. The last batch of assassins that had gone after him was evident enough of the Emperor's persistent. So, it was Joshua's idea to fake his death and lead the world to believe he was dead. To play more authenticity, no one was to know this. No one except for Marisa, who couldn't stand by as this crazy man attempt to stop a whole governing power on his own.

Thus, leaving only the two to face Grado head on.

What Vigarde was doing was low and dirty, someone like that should not, could not and _will not _run her homeland. If anyone could stop him, it would be Joshua. She had already followed him this far, it was too late to turn back and leave him to have his whole plan blow up in his face.

The vacation time she had requested earlier in the day was so she could accompany Joshua on his planned strategy. Hopefully she had not leave everyone feeling suspicious of this activity. Though, since Rennac had figured it out, chances for the others to have to were high.

Their plan was to get a confession out of Vigarde, gather up paper works, anything that had proof of his activities, infiltrate the Underground Project and dethrone him.

They both knew this would not be an easy task, but at least it was start.

"We know." Joshua replied to Rennac's question.

"Well, I guess since I'm involved now, I ought come with you."

"What?" Marisa exclaimed. "You'll just get in the way. And you're just saying that because those guys are after you. We're not your bodyguards."

"Hold on Marisa." Joshua stopped. "He knows who I am and what we're up to. He may be your friend but I don't think I can trust him not to blab this out anyone else."

"I can keep a secret." Rennac pouted.

"Then you can stay here." Marisa retorted.

"Wh- But." Rennac began.

"On the other hand, he could come in handy. He was able to uncover you and your lie." Joshua pondered.

"To be honest though, Marisa's not a very good liar."

The comment earned him a glare from said peron, which was ignored as Rennac chuckled to himself.

"Yeah, you're right about that." Joshua agreed.

"Whose side are you on?" Marisa fumed.

"Sorry, but he'll have to come with us." Joshua decided.

"Ha." Rennac scoffed as a grin seeped its way onto his face.

"If he mess this up... Don't forget that I've warned you." Marisa said quite bitterly.

"Nah, when have I ever messed up?"

Before she could answer "every time," he continued on.

"By the way. If we're legitimately doing this, shouldn't we get a little... Help?"

"What do you mean?" Marisa asked.

"Like... An identity change?"

"Funny that you brought that up. Marisa's supposed to get after we've met up." Joshua replied.

"Cool. ...Is that where we're heading?"

"I don't know... Is it?" Joshua asked meekly as he drove over a curve, bashing both Rennac's and Marisa's head to the ceiling of the car.

"Ah! You're terrible at driving you know that?" Marisa hissed as she rubbed the part on her head that had been hit.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Joshua said as he rubbed the top of his head, where he had been hit as well.

"Get out, I'll drive from here." Rennac said.

In the process for the two to switch seats, Marisa took the time to glance out the vehicle to see if anyone was watching them. Or if there was any other souls out there.

The street was completely empty. A dark road with lit streetlamps. The dark building along the sides added a more emptiness statement to the scenery. Not that she should expect anyone to be out at this time, it was still eerie.

"You like?" Joshua asked, diverting her attention away from the lonesome street.

She did not need to ask for further clarification to his question as he presented his arms out to show his whole newly changed outfit to her.

The sight before her was quite an eyesore to be frank.

From what she had already seen from him: a new hairstyle and added face accessories, his body was one to match. A biker's leather jacket, accented with chains and stud, black worn away pants with horizontal rips below the knees and topped (or bottomed) off with heavy black boots.

His new gothic/punk look was at such the end of the spectrum from his previous look, it was almost like looking at a different person.

"It's scary." Marisa commented, unable to take her eyes off of his disgruntled appearance.

"So, I take it as a yes?" Joshua said spiffy.

"It's scary." Marisa had to repeat herself.

"Nah, you don't know anything." Joshua brushed off. "This is trending right now." He said confidently.

"Maybe in the underworld."

Rennac suppressed a giggle while Joshua shot a hard glare at Marisa, which she easily disregarded.

"Right. So this Identity Change place..." Rennac began. "Where exactly is it?

"Hello and welcome to Fields View Clinic. How may I help you?" Said the woman at the receptionist desk. She wore a white blouse and had curly ginger locks of hair. Her skin looked similar to a porcelain doll's, and she had very big bright green eyes.

"Hi." Joshua greeted as leaned onto the counter with an arm, his hand tucked into his pocket and one leg crossed over the other. "I don't think you remember me, but my friends here..." He took out a white card which Marisa recognized as the Identity Change's business card, and slid it over to the receptionist.

"Oh! Of course." She exclaimed as she took out two clipboards with papers on it, and handed it to Marisa and Rennac. "Please fill these out with your real information and bring it back to me when you finish." She said with a gentle smile.

Marisa and Rennac headed over to the chairs lined up against the wall to fill out the paper works.

Before Marisa got to filling out the papers, she looked around the room.

She had expected the office of Identity Chance to be much bigger, and kept in secret, preferably underground or perhaps hidden in a warehouse, not in a small clinic on the corner of a street. When they had arrived at the building she was doubtful of Joshua's direction to the place. But Joshua was the only one out of three who actually came and went.

She would had gone with him on the night he went, but because of their conflicting time schedule, she couldn't.

Therefore he was the only lead.

Other than the mere observation, there was no one else in the room except for her, Rennac, Joshua and the receptionist who was very apparent in flirting with Joshua.

While he waited for the two, Joshua, or his new 'identity', Blake, was literally hanging off the counter, the majority of his upper body leaned in very close to the woman.

Seeing his ridiculous outfit, she had to admitted, he did look good.

In a bad guy kind of way.

His hushed words to the receptionist were inaudible, but whenever he spoke, her response was a giggle and or a blush.

_How can he flirt at a time like this? _She thought as she narrowed her eyes at the two.

"Hey Marisa." Rennac's voice broke her thoughts off.

"For occupation, what do we put? Assassins?" He asked.

She shrugged. "Yeah. Gerik's associated with them so they know who we are."

"Oh yeah, right." Rennac said as he went back to scribbling on the papers.

Marisa stared down at the papers containing numerous questions.

_If I get to choose the new 'me', I wonder what I should be... _She pondered.

* * *

"Right this way please." Natasha motioned them into the only door in the room other than the entrance.

Instead of seeing a small doctor's check up office, it was a hug warehouse, divided into three sections; one which looked like to be a salon, the other had racks of clothes and the last one was a strip of desks and cabinets. All the sections had people scrambling on their feet.

"Is this...? Rennac began.

"Yes, it is." The receptionist confirmed before Rennac could finish. "You will each be given a stylist... Oh, and here's Jorge." She said as a slim blonde man walked (more like sashayed) up to them.

"Hi! I am Jorge! I will be in charge of ze appearances." He said quite happily with a foreign accent. "Oh!" He squealed as his eyes landed on Marisa. "I will take you. You are very pretty... Yes... I have something in mind..." He walked around Marisa with a finger on his chin as he examined her.

"Uh." Marisa shifted her eyes side to side as the man very thoroughly examined her.

How very uncomfortable.

He led to her a station, where he plopped a black cape over her. He turned her away from the mirror and snip, snip, went her hair.

After that, he applied a some sort of chemical onto her hair, which smelt like ammonia and washed it off in the sink.

It was a long process: all the hair cutting, the washing, and the blow drying, but alas, she was revealed in the mirror her transformation.

"Voila!" Jorge exclaimed.

Marisa stared wide eyed at her reflection.

Her choppy bangs became straight blunt bangs just above her eyebrows, her long hair that once fell along her back was now only up to her armpits, and it was straight. Really, really straight and flat against her head. Oh, and the worst of it was her fuchsia hair was now platinum blonde.

"W-w-what did...?"

"Very pretty, no?" Jorge said with a bright smile. "You zee, when I first saw you, you remind me of the beautiful women in my home country. So I make you like ze import models."

"I don't want to be-"

"Ah, ah, ah! We are not finish. It is time for ze makeup!" He exclaimed as as two women swarmed around Marisa and applied a variety of makeup onto her. Because of her struggles, Jorge had to hold her head still. Several more women came and did manicures and pedicures for her.

After they were done, she caught a glimpse of what the women had done to her. Her eyes were rimmed with layers of eyeliner and dark eye-shadow, her eyelashes caked with mascara, her cheeks flushed with pink blush and her lips glossed with a deep red lip gloss. Much more than she would usual apply. As for her nails, the were glued on acrylic nails, about an inch long, and decorated with a variety of bright color.

"And like ze models, you have to wear ze very big sunglasses!" Jorge placed a pair of plastic bug-eyed sunglasses on her, which covered most of the top half of her face.

Her eyes were glaring at him through the refection and her lips were frowned in an upsetting manner.

"No, no, no honey. You have to be like ze happy! Happy!" He said as he used two of his finger to push her lips upwards.

Marisa immediately jerked her head away from him.

"Touch me again, and you die." She threatened.

Jorge shook his head. "Tsk tsk tsk. That is not the manner a woman should be behaving in. You are ze model now, so... Be fun! Be outgoing! And be sexy!"

"Huh?" Those attributes were everything Marisa was definitely not.

"Now come on! It is time for ze wardrobe."

_She had no choice but follow seeing as he yanked her by the wrist. So with _a very grumpy and hesitantly sigh, she followed behind.

* * *

"I am _not _putting these on." Marisa said from behind the curtains.

"Oh my goodness..." Jorge groaned as he rubbed his temples. "She is very stubborn, it cause the stress to me..."

"I heard there was a problem?" Joshua said as he walked up to Jorge.

"Yes! She won't put on ze clothes!" Jorge exclaimed.

Joshua arched an eyebrow up. "Really now?" He went over to the closed curtains and leaned on the wall. "Hey Marisa." He called out.

"What?" She replied annoyingly.

"Why don't you wanna try on the clothes?" He asked calmly.

"Do you know what they're making me wear?"

"No, actually I don't. But why don't you just wear it for now and you can change once we get outta here, okay?"

There was no response from Marisa.

"Come on, they won't stop bothering you until you do it and then we'll never get out of here."

"... Fine."

Joshua smiled. "Atta' girl."

_A few minutes later..._

"Wow." Was all Joshua could say.

"Magnificent! Total Transformation!" Jorge praised as he walked up to Marisa.

She stood in discomfort in her 4 inch high stilettos, her super short leather skirt, red tank top that exposed just the rift of her belly and a white fur coat jacket.

"You are like ze models now!" Exclaimed Jorge.

Marisa took a step forward and wobbled to the side a bit because of her unsteadiness on the 4 inch stilettos.

Joshua grabbed her arm to prevent her from falling over.

"Need some help?" He smirked.

"No." She snatched her arm away from his grip and re-posed herself.

"So, uh, you look..."

"Shut it." Marisa snarled as she tried walking again.

_What did Tethys teach me again? Oh yes. Heel, toe, heel, toe..._

_Her experience with high heels were little to none. That 'little' being the one time Tethys had gave her a lesson in a ladies proper etiquette and mannerism, which had failed miserably._

She managed to waddle a couple of feet before looking back at Joshua, who was heard chortling.

Not only was his giggling evident that he was enjoying her tumbling, but the grin smeared as wide as his face was evident alone.

"Well? Let's get out of here already." She frustratedly said.

Joshua shrugged. "There's still the matter of the paper works and such. And that may take a while."

Marisa narrowed her eyes at him in disbelief.

"What? I'm serious."

The narrowness of he eyes didn't lessen or widen. "Lead the way." She finally said.

"Okay." Joshua agreed. He walked up to her then leaned in towards her. "By the way, your skirt rides up every time you take step." He said in a low volume.

Marisa's face immediately turned hot then reached down to tug the leather skirt down. She looked around to see if any of the workers were paying attention to her.

Joshua chuckled as he walked ahead of her.

"Hey yo! Check me out!" Rennac exclaimed.

The two turned around to face him.

It was like looking at a completely differently person.

Instead of his usual leather jacket over a hoodie and skinny jeans, he wore a black and white plaid collared t-shirt, and beige cargo pants with black converses. He wore those ridiculously huge, thick framed 80s glasses, his hair was a lighter shade of brown and slicked back. The unusual part was he had an inch long stubble growing along his jaw. The unusual being his face was hair free just a few hours ago.

"Wow. You look cleaned-up. But how did you... Get that facial hair so quickly?" Joshua commented.

"Huh?" Rennac reached up to feel along his jaw line. "Huh. I didn't know it was possible, but that hair growing serum worked. But yeah, I look like a nerdy hipster!" He said. "Where's Marisa? I would _love_ to see what she transformed into."

She knew she looked different, but it was now apparent the extraneous of her transformation had left her unrecognizable by her closest friend who stood in plain view of him.

"Ahem." Joshua pointed to Marisa.

"Wha-... No. Way." He took one good look at Marisa then burst out laughing, bending over as he held his stomach.

Marisa slid her sunglasses up to rest on top of her head so that her glare was seen. "Go ahead, laugh. I'm going to change once we get outta here."

"WAHAHA! Woo... Ohhhh, Marisa." He went up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I never thought I'd see the day where you actually look attractive."

"Do you want me to hurt you?" She said through gritted teeth.

"Can't really take you seriously when you look like that." Rennac said, stifling a laughter.

"That's it..." She clenched her fingers together into a fist and was about to bring it down on Rennac when Jorge came by.

"No, no, no! Ze fingernails! Ze fingernails!" He said as he used one finger to point to his other hand.

Marisa looked down at her decorated acrylic nails. She had often heard Tethys complain whenever of her acrylic nails came off and how much it hurted.

She figured it wasn't worth the pain to waste it on Rennac, so she grumpily stuffed her hands into the pockets of her fur coat.

"By the way, I can see your ass." Rennac snickered.

And like a reflex, she took out a hand and slapped him hard across the face, making him fall over.

"Ahaha... Oww... Haha... Why did you... Haha!" A red hand shaped mark bore on his cheek as he rubbed the area. He was still laughing and aching in pain, and tears were welling up in his eyes. Whether they were tears of pain or laughter, no one knew.

"Uh, never mind him." Joshua said looking concernedly at the laughing and in pain Rennac. "Is he always like this?"

Marisa turned her head to him, "never mind him, right?" She shrugged.

Undergoing the process of a haircut, manicure and pedicure, complete change in wardrobe and a make over was somehow less enduring than some of the missions she went on. After this, she swore never to step into a hair and nail salon. And perhaps a clothing store.

If she thought all of that was hard, what would come next would be much difficult.

Three lone persons: one being a presumably dead King and the other two being rouge assassins of a private company, going up against the governments of the biggest country on the continent. As well as the strongest country, to add to that.

She knew what she placed herself in, what she didn't know was whether or not she'd make it out alive.

The real challenge began now.

* * *

**Random A/N: **Rennac's little back story with L'Arachel will be told in the next chapter.

Happy readings!


	9. Uncertainty

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

Enjoy!

* * *

**Uncertainty**

The cool breeze was relaxing, though some may disagree and say it was too strong. Marisa didn't pay no mind. A strong breeze like this was never felt back home. Any wind felt was usually from a speeding vehicle, an aircraft flown too low, or a blasting AC on those withering hot summer days. It would always smell heavily polluted with toxins from the nearby factories and vehicles. This though, the winds carried the scent of salt, as it should for it was from the sea she was travelling on.

The unsteady rockiness from the speed boat was tolerable for her, but the same couldn't be said for a certain someone.

"I... Am going be right back." Rennac said shakily only moments after emerging from the cabin.

Marisa shook her head in disbelief at how easy it was for her friend to get sick.

Coming off from her side, Joshua (or Blake) situated himself against railing as he gazed out at the sea.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" He commented.

Marisa shifted her eyes out to the open blue horizon before them. It was indeed.

The day had the perfect consistency of the sun, but not enough that it was burning hot. Clouds were no where to be seen except for a few flurries that hovered here and there. The sun illuminated a warm orange glow that could be reflected off the waves of the rippling water before them.

She brushed a piece of her hair back behind her ear, but the rest of her hair seemed untamed to the whipping wind around her.

"Here." Joshua handed her his black beanie he chose to wear on that day. A change from his usual choice in head wear.

Three days have passed since her's and Rennac's identity change. Although Rennac seemed to have comfortably situated himself to his new persona, Marisa still couldn't grasp what she had... _Become._

"_A life sized barbie doll for men."_ As Rennac had humorlessly stated and Joshua whole hardheartedly agreed to.

She was now Evelyn Lucia, an import model. At fist Marisa thought she had read the papers wrong, but after taking a triple take, it was confirmed that it indeed read 'import model'. To go along with her new identity, Identity Change had the courtesy of providing her clothes that only a model would wear, but to her standard, she could not even considered them as clothes but maybe lingerie.

Rennac had it easy: Alex Volke, graphic designer. His wardrobe considered of buttoned up shirts, cargo pants, sweaters, jeans and plain t-shirts. Marisa had asked him to share some of his clothes with her but he quickly denied it as it was more "fun" seeing her that way.

'Fun' as in being eyed up and down and all around by passing men.

Her tolerate was reached when the owner of the speed boat they rented asked for a little more than he _should _bargain for...

And well, simply put, that did not end well, but a compromise was made in terms of money. As for her dilemma in clothes, Joshua was more than happy to share his leather and studded clothes with her, even if she looked like a gothic chick wearing clothes way too oversized for her slender body, as long as they covered the flesh of her arms, legs, back, chest... And basically everything, she wasn't complaining.

Since embarking on their rather risky mission, the first step was decided to make sure Princess L'Arachel, the target Rennac had failed to assassinate for _still _unknown reason, was safe. Without a clue to where to start looking for princess, Rennac suggested the small independent island called Tolka which resided off the coast of Frelia. The island is known for its warm seasons all year round, its tropical forests filled with exotic animals and plants and the number one tourist attraction, the beaches.

Rennac didn't keep to his words: his promise of telling his story behind keeping L'Arachel alive and what happened between two in exchange for Joshua's plan to confront the Emperor of Grado.

Though it bothered both Marisa and Joshua, they chose not to bug him about it as it gave them some leads to where to start.

Being an assassin had its perks admittedly. An ordinary person would probably not have any connections to someone who owned and drove a speed boat for a cheap price. Or where to get weapons and utilities item for free. Or get their whole identity swapped!

That was the easy part though. Even though the three had burned all their tracks, they still had to be aware of anyone following and watching them.

The two men that had confronted Rennac and Marisa just days ago were still unknown as to who they were, why they were following them and most importantly, how they knew Joshua and L'Arachel were still alive.

"Thanks." Marisa said as she took the stitched hat and firmly placed it on top of her head. It kept the lot of her hair in place from the strong wind.

Joshua went to ruffle his hair around, freeing the strands being tucked underneath the hat for so long. With the work of the wind, it did well in letting loose of his dark raven locks and trailing them along wind.

"I've been wondering," Joshua began, his eyes still dazing out the sea. "About our bet."

Marisa twitched a shoulder up. Not from the sudden brought-up subject but because her large shirt (or more rather, Joshua's) was beginning to slip off her shoulder. A moment of bad timing, aa Joshua took notice at that shifted his eyes to her.

A look she recognized as suspicion and quickly became weary, not that she held any information worth suspicious about.

"You never gave me your answer before we were so rudely interrupted," he grinned.

Or perhaps she does.

Marisa shrugged. "Yeah," she simply ended with a hopeful dismissal of the conversation.

But Joshua was a man of answers and would go to the extreme if need be to get them. She should know that by now as his persistent curiosity was what had them aboard this ludicrous adventure. He stared at her with eager eyes.

"So? What was it going to be?" Joshua asked after a growing moment of silence of which he gave for Marisa to reply. She noted the opportune he had gave for her to speak but chose to kept quiet.

She looked back at him, body turn at a slight degree for her hip to rest along the silver railing of the boat.

After building the small courage to give him an answer he patiently waited for, she parted her lips slightly and gripped the iron bar railing with small strength.

"I don't know," she responded, more quieter than she had expected.

She knew it wasn't the response he wanted, but she noticed no change on his face.

The two spoke nothing for some time. With the wind whipping and roaring around the, the crashing of the cobalt colored waters beneath them and cries of circling seagulls above them, they just stared at each other. Around, to the site, below, above... Their eyes never exactly met, instead, made dances and circles on each others' face.

"The... The dude said we'll be arriving there soon." Rennac said, referring to the owner and driver of the speedboat.

Rennac's apparent presence was more than enough to break the tension between Marisa and Joshua let alone his voice. He had staggered noisily towards the two; hands gripping whatever they could and feet stomping to plant his body firmly to the ground from tipping over into the waters.

Marisa turned her head to acknowledge Rennac.

"Cool." Joshua responded, then walked towards the stumbling poor man.

She watched as Joshua slap a hand gently on Rennac's shoulder as he walked by to show a friendly gesture.

She turned her attention back to the sea.

_I don't know. I didn't know. _

She let a short sigh as she ran a hand atop her head only realizing she had forgotten she was wearing Joshua's beanie. She took the black beanie off and looked at it.

"I still don't know."

"Wow! This place is exactly like those pictures in those tourist brochures things." Rennac commented after throwing a duffle bag to the ground.

Marisa had to agree. The beach was a spectacular view with its golden brown sand and bar huts build at the perfect distance away from the waters. The beach was crawling with sunbathers, families, friends, couples, everyone and anyone imaginable. The water was filled people splashing about, surfing, para sailing and jet skiing.

Where the sand ended, just behind the bar huts, met the topical forest with leaves and plants greener than Marisa had ever seen.

It was a real paradise gateway.

"So she's here, right? You positive?" Joshua asked. Of course, a questions like that would prove futile as they had spend the majority of their time and energy getting to the place, but the reasoning behind Rennac's sudden choice was still uknown.

"Actually it's more of a guess." Rennac admitted sheepishly.

Marisa and Joshua both narrowed their eyes in annoyance at him. "You're kidding," Joshua said, his voice drawled with annoyance. He shifted his eyes over to Marisa with the same look on his face.

Marisa returned his look with the same expression on her's. And as if he had read her mind, "I think it's time you told us about L'Arachel." Joshua demanded as he crossed his arms over his chest. More than likely to show his seriousness.

Marisa nodded in agreement.

Rennac sputtered a few words before shaking his head in disbelief. "We've already arrived here and you ask me _now_?"

"We've been asking the whole trip here! But you've been avoiding it every time we asked!" Joshua retorted.

"Oh. Well, that's true." He said before looking down at his feet.

Marisa and Joshua waited for him to speak, but he continued to stare at his feet for God knows why.

"Well?" Joshua nearly shouted, apparent that he was on his brink of patience.

"Ok, ok!" Rennac responded, placing his arms up to calm Joshua down. He took one look at Joshua then at Marisa before taking off his brown leather jacket, an article of clothing added to his new 'hipster' wardrobe.

"Can we go somewhere where there's less sun?"

"This peach mango fuzz is an excellent drink. Are you sure you don't want to try any?" Rennac offered as he took a sip from the orange slush drink.

Marisa waved a hand off before returning it to its position grasped tightly around her bare waist.

In order to blend in more, and to bare the hot humid sun, the three had went off to purchase attire suitable for the beach weather.

Rennac was happy to find a pair of light brown cargo shorts along with a light grey buttoned shirt and flip flops. Joshua was more than satisfied to wear only a pair of dark blue swimming trunks and sandals. Purposely exposing his lean body, no doubt from the looks of exchange between him and passing girls. Why Marisa had noticed this, she did know why. Instead, she should be more worried of the unwanted leered stares she was getting.

Joshua and Rennac had picked out a two piece swimsuit for her to wear. A swimsuit, not clothes. Was this a sick joke? Rennac knew how uncomfortable she was being in crowd let alone expose skin.

She supposed it was her fault for letting the two pick her attire as it was her who chose to watch their luggage. And it was her fault for not going to the store herself upon seeing the atrocious bikini. But admittedly, she was burning up under the sun. Any second later, she was sure she would suffer from heat stroke.

She had made it better though. She managed to steal a small fabric that laid unattended on the beach. It was a light feel red cloth and she had tied it around her waist to hide small part of her waist and thighs.

"So start talking." Joshua said after taking a sip from his red colored drink.

"...Okay. But promise me you're not going to laugh."

"Oh, so is this a funny story?" Joshua asked jokingly.

Rennac only glared at him.

"Sorry," Joshua apologized under his breath as he turned his attention to his sugary drink.

Rennac leaned back in the white cushioned chair and let out a hefty sigh. "Where do I begin?"

"So this is her new home, eh?" Rennac asked as he pulled his car to a stop. He parked the car across the street from the mansion that Princess L'Arachel supposedly had brought.

He leaned on the steering wheel and stared at the place with a bored expression.

_Eh, my place is bigger. _He shrugged.

He noted how heavily gated the place was; gold chromed gates perimetered the entire place.

It wasn't his usual way of doing missions, usually he'd leave it to the last couple of days to complete it, but this particular one, he wanted to do it perfectly. And so, he would have to use every bit of available time he had to work this mission. Even as far as too booking a flight to Rausten and observing the Princess up close.

_"Wh-what? Do you know who this is? It's a princess... An actual friggin' princess." Rennac exclaimed. _

_"Yeap. And it's your job to wipe her out." Gerik replied. _

He couldn't believe it. Even with three days passed since he had been assigned the mission, he couldn't believe it. He felt honored that Gerik entrusted him with this mission (even if it was because there was no one else available at the moment), and because of that, he felt it was his obligation to actually try and achieve this mission flawlessly.

He didn't want to let them down.

Rennac looked up and down the street. There was no one in sight. Unless they were hiding inside their expensive mansions. He found it rather hilarious that the spoiled, pompous Princess L'Arachel he had heard so much on the news and entertainment shows, found a place of her own.

_She won't even last a day by herself. Not without her uncle showering her with money. _Rennac scoffed. Well, if he did kill her, it would be doing the world a favor; one less spoiled, egocentric princess.

According to the files Saleh had provided for him, L'Arachel wasn't supposed to move in the mansion for another two days. In other words, it was empty.

Perhaps he could take the time to scope out the place and plan his move.

He cautiously got out of the car, suspicious of anyone watching him, and dashed across the street to the place.

He grabbed onto the gold chromed gates bar and took a gander at the place.

Forget about his place being bigger, this place had yards of green grass surrounding the place. It was spacious, decorated, green, and...

**"You there!"**

"Wha!" Rennac yelped out, nearly losing his balance.

_What was that? It sounded like it came from some radio._

**"You're Ray Amber, are you not?"**

On the block of the gate was an intercom and above it was a camera lens, buzzing as it adjusted its shot at Rennac.

"Uh..."

**"You're two hours early, but that's alright. Lady L'Arachel is already practicing."**

The gate buzzed and slowly swung open.

Rennac looked side to side.

_Really? They're just going to let me like that? Okay, well, they think I'm that Ray guy... Guess I'll play along._

On another side note, why were there people inside the mansion already?

The walk up to the mansion itself took about 5 long, exhausting minutes.

"Ah... I'm so unfit..." Rennac gasped as he finally reached the mansion. He heaved over slighting, legs bend and hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

The door swung open and out came a short, hairy man.

"Gwahaha! Ray Amber! Nice to meet ya!" The man said cheerfully as he grabbed Rennac's hand and shook it quite violently. He shook up and down as the man continued to smile on.

"Call me Dolza! L'Arachel's bodyguard." He smiled.

_"Uh..." Rennac tried to reciprocate the greeting, but already being out of breath and taken surprised by an energetic man was more than he can handle. _

"C'mon! I'll show you into the room." Dolza welcomed, unaware of Rennac's distress.

"Well, damn." Rennac said under his breath as he followed behind the man.

As they traveled into the mansion, Rennac noticed that it was empty. No surprise there, since the place was just recently bought. They were still in the process of moving.

He noticed something.

_What am I here for?_

It wouldn't be wise to ask, in case suspicion were to arise, so he hoped that the Gods would be nice to him and let the man tell him.

Finally they arrived into what looked like the ball room, since it was the biggest room out of all the other ones they had passed by.

Not too far from the entrance, was a woman, wearing a simple baby blue dress with sleeves that went down just above her knees. She had on matching blue flats and her shiny green hair was pinned up, held with various colorful pins. Looking from stance, with her left hand stretched out from her, her right arm wrapped around the air and her feet shuffling side to side.

It looked like she was dancing.

"Oh! Mr. Amber, a pleasure to meet you." The woman said as she turned around and noticed the two men standing at the entrnace.

Rennac immediately knew the woman as Princess L'Arachel.

Strange, she looked different in person. She looked more...

"Ah, yeah, that's me, Ray... Amber." He said nervously as he grabbed the princess' hand and shook it. She gave out a cheery smile before turning to Dolza.

"Dolza, would you mind fetching us some drink before we begin?"

"Gwaha! Of course, milady!" He said, then strolled off out of the room.

With Dolza out of the room, L'Arachel tiptoed and inched towards Rennac, a suspicious look on her face, and their faces not too far from each other.

_Crap. Has she figured me out already? I didn't say anything though..._

Rennac shifted his eyes nervously to the side. "Uh, Is there a problem?" He asked.

L'Arachel settled down on her feet and crossed her arms.

"You look much younger from what you sounded on the phone. And your voice is different too!"

"Ohhh really?" Rennac coughed, trying to deepen his voice. "I, uh, sort of have a cold," he quickly made up in hopes the woman will buy it.

"A cold? Well, that's nothing my little tablet that I've conjured up with natural herb ingredients can't fix!"

"Ah, no, no. That's fine."

"Mr. Amber, it's not only for your sake, but mine as well! If we're going to be working together, I do not want to catch your illness of any sort. I have to be in perfect health!" She said as she firmly crossed her arms above her chest.

_Rennac only stared at the princess in disbelief. _

"Dolza! Fetch Mr. Amber some of my cold medicine." L'Arachel annoucned as Dolza strolled in with a tray of drinks.

"Ah, I have a few right here. It works splendidly well, so I always carry them around! Gwahaha!" Dolza handed the small container to L'Arachel.

She took out 2 brown tablets and handed it to Rennac.

"Take two, and it'll rejuvenate you in no time!"

"Uh... Is it supposed to be brown? 'Cause most pills I take are white."

"Never mind the color! It _will _work!" L'Arachel pursued on as she looked at him with gleaming eyes.

Rennac looked and forth at L'Arachel and Dolza. They returned with a gaze that reeked with overluded happiness. It was almost creepy, Rennac thought.

"Ok... Well, here goes..." He swallowed the pills, his face cringing. "Hey, that wasn't so..."

The moment the pills landed in his stomach, there was a rumbling of sort followed by a nauseous feeling.

"B-Bathroom..." Rennac muffled into his hand as he covered his mouth.

"Right this way, my boy! Gwahah!" Dolza chuckled.

_Argh, what the heck are in those pills? _Rennac thought as he flushed the toilet. He washed his hands and mouth up in the sink.

_Wait... Unless they found out who I really am and is trying to poison me! In that case, I gotta get outta here._

"Mr. Amber? Are you all finished up in there? Lady L'Arachel is growing quite impatient." Dolza said as he knocked on the door.

_Drat._

Rennac sighed. "Coming, coming."

"Oh, there you are. We have to make up for loss time, I've only but 3 weeks to learn the art of ballroom dancing and you haven't shown me anything yet!"

"Oh, well maybe if it wasn't for your pills, I wouldn't have threw up half my guts in the bathroom." Rennac retorted.

L'Arachel chuckled.

"What? What's so funny?"

"That's just how it works! It gets rid of all the bad toxins in your body. But it varies from person to person, depending on how much bad toxins are floating about in their bodies... And well, looking at how much time you've spent in the bathroom, I'll say you had quite a few."

Rennac opened his mouth, ready to say something, but he had to admit, he did feel a bit better. Maybe her pills did flush out all the bad toxins or whatever out of this body.

"Now, let's get started shall we?" She said.

"Sure." Rennac grumbled.

It seemed the Gods were friendly with him today. It was something he never admitted, but he had many years of experience in ballroom dancing.

He held L'Arachel in his arms as their feet shuffled along the floor. L'Arachel looked rather concentrated on her feet, rather than looking up, like Rennac was doing.

"One and step, and two and..." L'Arachel mumbled to herself.

Rennac rolled his eyes. What an absolute turn off. Back in his days as a youth, he adored dancing; it used to be his passion because of its freedom in movement and its expression of feelings. Of course, this was a secret from everyone he knew. He had a rep to keep up with. But with this unusual turn of fate, it seemed his love for dance had suddenly reemerged itself.

"Okay, stop, stop." He unhanded her.

"Oh? What seems to be the matter?" L'Arachel asked.

"I can tell you 3 things you're doing wrong. One; you're too busy looking down on your feet, and not your partner. Two; you're mumbling to yourself, count in your head otherwise your partner will think you're crazy. And three; you're leading too much. You're a woman, yes? Let the man lead you."

L'Arachel crossed her arms and frowned. "I thought I was doing good... I have to look at feet to know what I'm doing. And you were going too slow." She pouted.

"If you lead, it'll downgrade the man's ego. Not saying that mine was affected, but what will whoever you have to dance with think of you?" Rennac smirked.

"They'll think as me as a powerful and independent woman who can carry herself out!"L'Arachel proudly announced with his chin held up.

_...What?_

"Uh, sure. But I dunno if you know this, but in dancing, it's the men who like to lead."

"I don't understand why that is. Can't we both lead?"

Rennac sighed annoyingly as he put his hands on his hips.

_Is it time for me to leave yet?_

"I'm- I'm sorry." L'Arachel said. "I'm fairly new at this. And I really want to impress Lord Daryl..."

He didn't expect to see tears well up in her eyes. What happened to the 'powerful and independent woman just seconds before?

"Er, don't be sad..." Rennac hesitantly said. He was never good with bawling women.

"I-I can't!" L'Arachel wailed as she held her hands to her face. "I'm going to trip on my feet in front of everyone and they're going to laugh at me and Lord Daryl is going to think I'm a fool, and-and-"

"Okay! Shut up!"

The response caused L'Arachel to look at him. Her eyes were puffy with tears and her nose a shade of red.

He glared at her with hard eyes despite the mess of a look state she was in. Although, she was rather cute like that.

_Er._

"If you don't want to be laughed at, stop crying and let me teach you."

L'Arachel nodded in agreement. "I'm sorry." She wiped her running nose with a handkerchief she pulled out. "I'm not usually this. I'm just under a lot of pressure is all. With the Royal ball and the book I have out."

_She wrote a book? Now that's surprising. _

_"Also moving out here is the first I've ever been from Uncle. I haven't even moved in yet and already, I'm stressing out! Oh, I can't do anything right!" Which led to another crying session._

_Oh bother._

_Perhaps the stern yelling technique didn't work, he would have approach this in the most sensitive manner he knows how._

"There, there?" Rennac said in the most sympathetic tone he could. He also added a light pat on her back.

The Princess continued this for quite some time. Rennac could only occupy himself as he let the princess calm down. Put that proved to not happen anytime soon.

_Damn, where's that Dolza guy when you need him?_

"If you want... I can spend more extra time with you... To improve your dancing..." Rennac slowly said in hopes she would stop the blubbering noise she was making.

L'Arachel shot her head up. "Really?"

Surprised that it worked, he hesitantly responded,"uh, yeah sure. I can clear my schedule (_ha! what schedule?) _and spend the next... Three weeks, you said? Working with you." He didn't mean what he said, it was said solely to calm her down.

L'Arachel nodded her head eagerly. "Yes! I would love that very much! And I'll pay you extra!" She exclaimed.

_Huh. I did not expect her to agree to that so quickly. Rennac gulped._

_But... On the other hand: cha-ching._

This was great: he'll get paid for assassinating L'Arachel, and while on the job, she'll pay him for dance lessons.

Everyone worked out better than expected.

"I... I think I'm getting the hang of this!" L'Arachel exclaimed with joy.

"Yeeaahhh. But..." He let go of her hand and tilted her heads upwards. "You gotta look at me." He said.

Their eyes met and connected in a way that overwhelmed Rennac with a warm fuzzy feeling.

_She is pretty cute._

Rennac quickly released her.

"Well, there you go. You were able to dance without looking at your feet!" He applauded lighty.

"I suppose so." L'Arachel said with a smile. "Mr. Amber, I would like to ask, if you don't mind, but where did you learn to dance?"

"Hm," Rennac scratched the back of his head, "my father was a socialite and often hosted many parties. As an allowance for money, I was to entertain his guests' daughters by dancing with them." He merely shrugged.

"Oh, so you must have been quite the ladies man." L'Arachel giggled.

"At some time, yes." Rennac smirked.

L'Arachel continued to giggle, and then her gentle smile turned into a saddened frown. "I'm afraid our lesson is up."

"Really? So I'll see you tomorrow then..."

"Oh no, I meant this was the last of our lessons. I leave for Renais tomorrow."

Rennac arched an eyebrow up. _Really? Have I spent all three weeks with her already?_

L'Arachel grabbed Rennac's hands in her's. "I'm really thankful that you took your time to teach me." She began. "I'm also sorry for you having to put up with my... Ahem, behavior."

"Hey, no problem, anytime. I guess. ... I hope that Lord guy will be impressed with your dancing."

"Of course he will! I had you to teach me after all."

Rennac blushed slightly. "Hey now, you're giving me too much credit."

She let go of his hands and walked over to grab something. "No one has read this yet... And I'd like you to be the first reader and tell me what you think of it." She handed him the book.

'The Divine and Holy Right.'

Rennac wasn't much of a reader. Or a divine and holy man for that matter.

"So, eh, what's this about?" He asked as he flipped through the pages.

_Oh poo... No pictures, all words. _

"Oh, just basically about life in general. People's behavior, what motivates us to do what us do and consequences taken."

"Hm, I see..." Rennac began, but L'Arachel continued to talk.

"And more importantly, taking responsibility for our action. Justice! Righteousness! And Divinity!"

"Wow, you're really passionate about these kind of stuff..." But again, L'Arachel ignored him and continued to (what it has now become) lecture.

"I want to spread the word of justice, to lessen our criminal rate, stop disputes between countries, even go far as to stop feuds between our neighbors! In the world that we live in, where war and violence seem to be the answer to everything, no answers are given, instead it is the lives of innocence that are taken away." She gave Rennac a look. "And that is what my book is about."

"... So a little bit of everything, huh?" Said the stunned Rennac.

"So please, if you could read it, and give me feedback?" She pleaded as she handed him a card containing her contact information.

Rennac shrugged. "Well, if it's that important to you."

"It is! It very is!" She nodded.

"Heh." Rennac chuckled. "Then I'll do just that."

They both headed to the door. Before Rennac walked out, L'Arachel thanked him again.

"It really was a pleasure working with you, Mr. Amber." She said with a smile.

"And it was pleasure working with you, too. And remember, look at your partner when you dance. It creates more chemistry." Rennac winked. "Well... See you around." He took a couple of steps out when L'Arachel called out to him once again.

"Wait! You forgot your payment." She handed him a fat envelope filled with, what Rennac would have guess, money.

"Oh... I almost forgot..."

"Well then... Goodbye, Mr. Amber." L'Arachel said as she closed the door.

Strange. When it came to money, Rennac never forgot about that.

"Then came mission day. I was really psyched... But as I was sitting in her hotel suite holding the gun... I couldn't do it. when she and Dolza walked in I explained everything to them, and with some quick thinking, I managed to get them to escape through the hotel roof with a helicopter. After I told them about 'identity change' that's when I planted the bomb, so that everyone would think she died in an explosion."

After he had finished, Rennac let out a big sigh of relief. He turned to his two friend who have kept quiet throughout his story.

They both had a look of indifference. Though, for Marisa it would considered her natural emotion, but Joshua looked all but impressed.

Not that he expected a round of applause for his epic story telling, but did his story that boring that it had turned them mute?

"Rennac... You dance?" Marisa couldn't help but to ask.

Rennac gave her a look of bafflement.

"That... Was that all you got from that?" He exclaimed.

"I never knew." Marisa responded as if it would lessen his bewilderment.

It didn't seemed to.

"Yeah, ok. I dance. I _did _dance."

"So," Joshua started as he learned his arm on the table. "You let her go. And you think she's here?"

"Yeah." Rennac shrugged.

"Did you tell her to come here or something?" Joshua continued on.

"No, I just told her to get as far away as possible. She also mentioned this island one time in a conversation that I really don't remember was about. It's the only lead we have."

Joshua nodded his head slowly in sync as he leaned back in his chair, a finger laid gently on his chin.

"I guess we should get started on looking for her then?" Joshua suggested.

"Yeah..." Rennac replied lazily as he slumped back and looked out the many tourists that crawled the beach.

"How the hell do you suggest we do that?"

"Nothing?" Joshua asked as he walked up to her.

Marisa shook her head. "And you?"

"Same." He sighed as he placed his hands on his hips.

Rennac chose to visit the locals' home and main town just 30 minutes away from the beach, leaving Marisa and Joshua to search the beach. Although Marisa had only searched the beach barely an hour, asking locals if anyone had moved to the island recently, her search had ended futilely. Since the population of Tolka was 1/5 of her city in Renais, it would be likely that the locals knew each other but everyone she asked responded with the same answer, "no."

"Well, this is a pain in the butt. Should we start asking the tourists?"

"No," Marisa shook her head as she gave a quick scan at the sun kissed, happy laughing people around her. "They here to take their minds off things back home, not memorize the people who lives here." She turned back to look at Joshua only to see him turning his head to follow the two thin girls in swimsuits that passed by him.

After he turned back to look at Marisa, he was met with a glare.

"So that's why." Marisa stated as she made her way pass him.

"Huh? What? 'That's why' what?" Joshua asked confusedly as he trailed after her.

"We're looking for someone and you're checking out girls."

"I'm not checking out anyone!" Joshua scoffed. "Besides, I can't help it that we're at the most relaxing place on Earth. It's good to relax once in a while."

Marisa stopped and turned to face him. "Even at this time?" She stared at him seriously.

She watched as his playful grin dissolve off his face to match her stare. "Yeah. Even at this time."

As if right on cue, someone had chosen to accidentally, or purposely, chuck a white volleyball at the side of Marisa's head.

The impact wasn't very hard but it was enough to make her sway to the side and yelp.

"Ohhh! Sorry 'bout that!" Sounded a male's voice.

She rubbed the area that had been hit as she turned to look at the fool that had hit her. It was scrawny young man and he stood a few feet away from her. "A little help?" He asked.

To think that he was serious to expect her to hand in the ball after nearly knocking her off her feet with it, but she did it anyways.

She spun the ball once in her hands after picking it up. "Heh, sorry..." the man apologized again.

She did a hard chest pass to the man. She smirked to herself as he let out a loud grunt upon catching the ball.

"Thanks..." The man said as he rubbed his chest, walking away.

Her eyes continued to narrow at him as he jogged away.

"Heh... Hehehe," Joshua snickered.

"You think that's funny?" She glared at him.

Apparently so. His snickering grew into a chuckle which building into laughter.

"I don't need this," Marisa muttered as she walked away, to where, she didn't know, as long as it was away from his annoying laughing.

"Sorry!" He called out after her.

He could apologize all he wanted, she still wouldn't care. If she was him, it would be wise to leave her alone for some time. Perhaps hours. Days. Months.

What she didn't expect to happen though, was to be picked up off her feet, carried to where the water met ground and thrown into the water.

The water was cool and salty, both of which she tasted in her mouth and eyes. In stung in the eyes, though it gave her the spectacular view of how crystal clear the water was. After she struggled to emerge from the waters, she spat out some of the salty liquids that had spilled into her mouth. Where she was thrown wasn't deep, the water was just at her waist.

She looked around for, who she expected was Joshua who threw her into the water. Because of the water's clarity, she was able to pinpoint the shagged raven hair man who was swimming towards her.

She waited until he neared before she placed her hand on the back on his head and held it in place in the water.

His arms went flailing, both above and under water, splashing her, but she held her arm firmly in place. After seconds, she felt a hand wrap around an ankle and yank her off her feet. She fell backwards slightly, enough to take her hand off the back of Joshua's head.

She regained her balance and watched as Joshua jerked his head out of the water, his hair whipped around wildly as he coughed into the back of his hand.

"Are you- Eck, trying- To, eck- Kill me?" Joshua sputtered out.

"Do that again, and maybe I will." Marisa dangerously warned as she crossed her arms around her waist.

"Gosh," Joshua coughed once more. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were being serious."

She shifted her eyes to the side.

_Maybe you really don't know any better._

"Hey, come on," Joshua splashed some water on her waist, which made her take a step back. "I was just having fun. Y'know, relaxing once in a while."

She stared at him without saying anything.

"It's okay to take some time off work," he assured. "If you're working all the time you'll burn out real fast. And I need you to be on my team."

Marisa cocked her jaw to side. She was still mad after being so carelessly hit to the head by a ball, Joshua laughing at her and then throwing her into the sea. And he could still apologize a hundred times, her furriness wouldn't go away.

But somehow, she didn't exactly know how, he had that effect of being annoying and insensitive at one moment and the next... Opposite of that?

She didn't know how to quite explain it, but she wasn't _as _mad as before.

She retaliated by splashing a small wave of water at him.

Joshua raised an eyebrow as he grinned at her.

"What are you guys doing?" Rennac asked, standing a few feet away from them, the water up to his ankles.

They both turned their attention to their confused friend with a tentative eyebrow raised and his hands placed at his hips.

"You think this is splashy-happy hour?"

"Looks like someone doesn't know how relax," Joshua half whispered to Marisa as he began to walk out of the water.

"Trust me. He does know. Sometimes at the most inconvenient time." Marisa retorted, following him.

"While you guys are getting each other wet-"

_What a wrong way to put it like that._

"-I found L'Arachel."

The last part of the sentence froze both Joshua and Marisa.

"Well... Do take us to her."

They have trekked the island's tropical jungle for some time and only came across vegetation: trees taller and wider than some of the buildings back in Renais, with juicy plumped fruits hanging atop. The lower vegetation were bushes with leaves greener than a boa constrictor, which Marisa swore she saw on the trek over.

They had finally come to the odd sight of a cabin looking building placed in the middle of the jungle.

"How did you say you found her again?" Joshua asked.

"Just asked around town. They said there was some lady who moved here a month ago on some missionary statement, spreading the word of god and whatnot. Sounds just about right." Rennac shrugged.

"Really? I asked some of the locals at the beach and they didn't recall anyone who had moved here recently." Joshua said.

Rennac shrugged. "I guess that beach locals are different then the town locals. Okay... Here we go." He sighed as they got to the door of the building.

A few seconds later, a short man appeared at the door.

He had raven black hair which was slicked back with hair gel. Although he was short, he was burly looking; his big arms nearly puffing out underneath the red Hawaiian shirt he wore.

He looked at the three suspiciously, his bushy eyebrows furrowed together. He stared at Rennac the longest and then released his furrowed eyebrows and his expression turned into a happy, gleeful one.

"Rennac? Is that you?" He exclaimed.

"Uh, yea-Oof!"

Before Rennac could finish his sentence the man took Rennac up into his arms, lifting him off from the ground, and bellowing a hearty laugh.

"It's good to see you again, my boy!" He chuckled.

"Eh, yeah. Good to see you too." Rennac said unenthusiastically, struggling to get out of the man's arms.

The man placed Rennac down then looked at Marisa and Joshua.

"And who may they be? Friends of yours?"

Rennac reached up to scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah. Dolza, where's L'Arachel? I have to talk to her... It's urgent."

"Oh? Well, she's right in here. Come on in." Dolza gestured the three to enter the small home.

"Dolza, who was at the door?" Asked a woman's voice.

The woman entered the room they were in, from what looked like the kitchen, carrying a tray with drinks on it.

Her hair was a sandy brown color, and let loose to fall gently around her face. Her skin was bronzed with a light golden brown color, which went nice with the baby blue dress she wore.

She gave one look at Rennac, then dropped the tray she carried and sprang onto him, tightly wrapping her arms around his waist.

The sudden action made Rennac stumble backwards, but he managed to regain his balance.

"You're alive! I'm so glad..." Her voice was muffled into his chest.

"L'Arachel. You're alive too..." Rennac then encircled his arms around her.

"Ah! A beautiful reunion 'tis is!" Exclaimed Dolza. "This calls for Tolka's finest brew!"

"Save that for later." Rennac said as he gently pushed L'Arachel off. "I have something important to tell you guys."

"Did you see how they both looked at each other?" Joshua asked as he threw a small pebble into the leaves thickened jungle. "I think there's something going on between them."

Marisa merely shrugged. Was it possible that Rennac, the man slut, was in love?

L'Arachel wasn't his type. He liked women that were more curvacious and bustier. Never mind for their intelligence, anyone willing to jump into bed with him had to be stupid.

She narrowed her eyes to the ground. It had just dawned her how much she knew about the man, more than she wanted or ever hoped for.

Shaking her head, she tried to rid of the information she knew about Rennac. She repositioned herself against the house; back perfectly aligned with its structure as she leaned on it, arms crossed tightly across the chest and one foot placed firmly against the building aligned with her back so that one leg supported her body weight.

After the water ordeal, Marisa was smart to choose her own clothes: a loose button up shirt with a white tank top underneath and cargo pants similar to Rennac's. He and Joshua were sure they were men clothing, but that didn't bother Marisa since all the women pants she would find passed barely the mid point of her thigh.

She watched at Joshua flick another pebble into the bushes. After a ruffle of sounds, it hit a dull thud.

She observed him with her cocked slightly to side. He was scouring the ground in his already crouched position, searching for more pebbles.

_We never did finish that conversation._

She had hoped that he wouldn't act out or push her buttons about her response to his question but at the same time she had expected him to do so.

Joshua kept a quiet nature since then, almost to the point of suspicion. What happened to his extreme curiosity? To his need to know everything?

"_I don't know."_

Perhaps it upsetted him to know his life depended on such a vague uncertainty.

"_If I don't you walk away from this life by the end of this month… Considering I'd still be your target, you can kill me."_

A bet on his life.

She didn't know if she was going to keep him alive or not. She didn't know what she would have done that night if they hadn't been intruded on. And she didn't know if he had truly affected her life in any way. Although... That was up to her to decide if she had really changed.

Did she feel any differently? Did she think any differently? Or act differently?

_No._

Here she is: on an island with a completely new identity, travelling with a presumably dead person on the way to confront the most powerful man of Magvel.

It wasn't any different from when she left home.

The door to the home opened with Rennac, L'Arachel and Dolza stepping out, each with a suitcase in their hands.

"You don't need to bring everything, y'know?" Rennac said as he struggled to hold one of the bigger suitcases.

"You have to be prepared at all times! Now that I know who is behind the madness that has happened over the past years, I must bring all that is necessary to restore righteousness!"

_What a... Peculiar woman. _

"And I should have known the moment you walked in the door." L'Arachel walked up to Joshua. "It's been a long time, Joshua. You've really grown into your looks, though I can't say that I approve of your satanic style. Say, I believe you owe me a handful of money."

"Er, uh, hey, that was a long time ago... Can't you let that go?" Joshua stuttered.

"No! The punishment for cheating is to give back what you took from me." She turned to face Marisa. "And you must be Marisa. I am L'Arachel, but of course you know that. My new name though, is Stephanie Mist." L'Arachel introduced as she held her hand out.

Marisa hesitantly took her hand and shook it.

"And I'm Dolza! L'Arachel's bodyguard, but call me Bob Largo, gwahaha!"

"Okay... So now we set course to Grado," Rennac boredly stated.

They all nodded their heads once.

How they were going about to do this, she wasn't too sure.

She glanced over at Joshua who had stood up. Upon catching her glance, he threw a head nod with a half smirk.

Does he know what to do? Does he have a plan?

Telling from half smirk he shot at her, unusual from his friendly grin, she knew then that he was also uncertain.

He didn't know just as well as she did.


	10. Trust

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

Enjoy!

* * *

**Trust**

*Ring*

_They... might be out on a mission._

*Ring*

_Or having one of their outside gathering at that noisy bar they always go to._

*Ring*

_But someone's always working._

*Ring*

_And Gerik is always at home._

*Ring*

_Always. _

"Sorry. The person you are trying to reach is u-"

"Damn!" Was the word Marisa chose to huff out as she slammed the phone down on its receiver. She rested an arm on top of the payphone to act as a pillow for her head.

Letting out a sigh, she leaned forward to rest her forehead on her arm. She stared down at her feet as she recollect her thoughts.

It had escaped her mind for while that there were people in pursuit of her and Rennac. She didn't know who or why, but there was always a possibility that Gerik and others was in danger as well.

L'Arachel was still loud and pompous as before (according to Rennac), even so that she would sometimes mindlessly announce traces of her royalty life aloud in public. Dolza wouldn't do much to quiet the woman down when she accidentally made these outbursts as he would address her as 'your highness' at the start of every sentence.

By accident of course. Or so, sometimes Marisa wondered if the two were just _wanting _to get caught. But after getting a dose of their eccentric personality, she wouldn't care if the two were found out. Just as long as they left her out of it.

At least Rennac and Joshua were doing a much better job at concealing their real identity. There was an incident though, when Rennac talked to a young attractive lady and almost slipped out his real name.

"Eh, who's looking for us anyways? Joshua and L'Arachel are yesterday's news and we're nobodies."

A nobody.

That was right: her existence was anything of importance. If she were to die right now, no one would care. And as it so turned out, she did 'die'. Everything about Marisa is gone and now Evelyn Lucia exists.

Apart from the identity change, she let that thought put her to ease. That, and the fact that she hadn't found anyone with a suspicious nature that had be following their little band of hooligans.

Until last night.

It was more of a close call than anything, but it was enough to make Marisa's pulse beat drastically.

Just after they had reunited with L'Arachel and Dolza, the group were preparing to sail back inland when a man approached her and asked her a question.

"Have you seen these two?"

He showed her picture of two familiar figures she thought she wouldn't have to see for a while.

Her and Rennac. Or more rather, their old self.

It was a lucky thing for her that she chose to wear the oversized sunglasses just moments before the encounter, she would have to thank the sun for that.

The man and his partner seemed to not have recognize her and went about their way after giving a rather stiffed 'no' as her answer.

Although she didn't recognize the faces of the previous men that had stalked her and Rennac, she knew these two men were different. She tried to remember if they had anything significant that could possibly reveal their identity but couldn't find anything.

The first two men were dressed casually as they were normal civilians, same with the two on the island.

Although, the first two knew that she and Rennac had let Joshua and L'Arachel walk away alive. It was possible the other men were looking for the same reason.

_That's right. They knew... How?_

Her head immediately snapped up. She wasted no time to slip out of the phone booth and jog down the street to the hotel L'Arachel and Joshua stayed at.

Upon setting land of Grado, they had agreed to split up and stay in separate lodgings to reduce suspicion. Dolza stayed with L'Arachel, Rennac with Joshua, and her, by herself, as she preferred. They each stayed within a 30km radius of Grado's capital centre: the Empire building.

Though the county's metropolitan state and friendly atmosphere hadn't changed upon hearing about Grado's secret operation, it was brought to the gang's attention how security had risen.

There were more authoritative figures that strolled the streets, police stations situation every few blocks and proof of ID and citizenship were frequently asked.

Luckily for them, 'Identity Change' had an office or 2 in every country of Magvel so the group were able to obtain all necessary information.

She arrived at the hotel room, short of breath, and did the secret knock.

One knock. Two light ones. Knock...Knock...Knock. And a light kick.

She was greeted by Rennac, who only opened the door as far as the door chained allowed him. Half of his face was exposed as he blinked at her.

"Sorry, it's supposed to be _tap, tap tap, __**tap. Tap. Tap. TAP. **__THEN rap,_" he began to close the door when Marisa stuck her foot in the doorway.

"Whatever. Let me in," she demanded.

Rennac only cocked an eyebrow then eyed her foot at the doorway indicating that she had to remove her foot for him to let her in.

She let out a small sigh and removed her foot. She watched with a glare as Rennac closed the door, unchain the door then open it.

Their hotel room was a standard two bed and one bathroom all in one room, so she was able to see L'Arachel, Joshua and Dolza huddled over by the table, discussing plans for their raid, something she was part of before she decided to make the phone call.

Marisa debated to share the newly information with others or solely with Rennac as the information only pertained them.

Rennac looked at her as if he knew she had something to share.

"I think I know who's chasing us," Marisa began after closing the door behind her.

There was a slight change to his face that read his curiosity had peaked. "Yeah?"

"It's Emperor Vigarde's men. Grado."

Rennac took some time to think to himself, the back of his palm gently stroking his chin. "That's... How do you know?" Rennac asked.

"Vigardge is the one that wanted Joshua and L'Arachel dead. He was the one that hired us, that's why the pay was so high. And no one came after us until after Joshua faked his death. He probably found out we didn't assassinate them, that's why he sent his men after us," Marisa explained.

She felt accomplished to have figured everything out, though her accomplishment was hindered by the fact that she should have pieced everything sooner, but who would argue with her given what she had been through?

She wasn't the type to brag, maybe a nice compliment once in while, so she waited for a simple congratulation, but it never came. Instead, Rennac broke her theory apart with a simple question:

"What about those guys that broke into Joshua's house?"

Marisa's eyes shot to ground, much like her sure-fired theory.

Good question, _what _about them?

To much to Marisa's displeasure, Joshua had arrange the two assassins off the continent, escorted with someone from this defence department.

They swore to secrecy of Joshua's well being, in exchange, they would escape the cruel life that is the 'Underground Project'.

"If Vigarde _did _hire us, why did he send his own men?" Rennac continued.

Marisa eyed him carefully, "did you have run-ins with other assassins?"

"Well, no..."

Was it perhaps Vigarde grew impatient waiting for Joshua's death that he sent his own men? But Gerik and specified that deadline for the assignment and she 'met' it just in time.

There was also the matter of how Grado found out they faked Joshua's and L'Arachel's death. There was a possibility that they were followed the entire time of their assignment.

Just when she thought she had figured everything out more questions arises.

"You know who would know though? Gerik," Rennac commented. "Any word?"

Marisa shook her head. "I called 20 times today. No one picked up."

"Uh oh. Should we be worried?"

A bit overdue if he was just starting to worry now. She only shifted her attention to the three huddled by the table then started towards them, Rennac trailing behind her.

"... I'll plant the device in the security room then you'll have full access to the building's camera. There'll be a notification on your laptop when I do that, but until then, these little babies will have to be your eyes." Joshua held up a tiny round device between his thumb and index finger. It was barely as big as an horse fly.

One of the perks of being an assassin was the networking. Through Rennac's contacts, the group was able to obtain the needed equipment for their mission.

Cameras, hacking bugs, microphone, computers and weapons, all for the price of nothing so Rennac claimed. How he handled his business was nobody's affair but his. As long as it got them what they needed.

Dolza proved to be not entirely useless as he personally knew 2 of Grado's general: the Obsidian Duessel and Fluorspar Selena, both who resigned from their post 2 years ago. Although their resignation was unclear, what was clear was that they knew how the empire of Grado worked from the inside.

Dolza was able to contact them and the they've agreed to meet with them, though hesitant at first.

Considering how much they were able to obtain, Marisa thought they would actually be able to pull this off. There is though, the planning of how they were to do that.

"Emperor Vigarde's office and bedroom are all in the north corridor. During the night he will most likely be there," L'Arachel pointed out on the map that laid on the table. "If you follow along these halls, you will be able to get there with no trouble."

"For security and control room... to my best knowledge, I would believe they are located in the east of this building."

"To your best? C'mon, we need your precise," Joshua said.

"Excuse me!" L'Arachel exclaimed, taking offence. "The last I was in the castle was 5 years ago, and I was only there solely for lunch! Also," she picked up the map, crumpling it a bit, "this is just a map from the tour guide. Do you believe they would put such information on a tourist map?"

_Oh, not again._

Admittedly, there _had _been tension amongst them.

The more their operation came together, the more stress and tension grew. Though it couldn't be argued as the future of their beloved continent was at stake and no mistakes were to be made.

As everyone had their share of disputes and arguments, it can be agreed on that the most bickering happened between Joshua and L'Arachel.

Marisa wondered why; it could have been because the two were once the ones who told everyone what to do and how to do it.

"My princess, er, Stephanie_,_" Dolza, or rather, Bob, tried to intervene.

"It's better than nothing! We're on the down low, remember? And what happened to that so called 'unforgettable memory' you possess? The thing that we should 'rely on'?" Joshua retorted.

L'Ararachel gasped loudly in dramatic tone while she placed a hand covering her gaping mouth. "Are you questioning my abilities?"

"I am doing just that."

L'Arachel huffed her cheeks out as glared at the uncaring man before her.

After a moment of quiet tension, it was thought L'Arachel would have lunged at Joshua. Instead, she yelled out the name of her bodyguard.

"Dolza!"

"Bob," Rennac thought to correct.

Unsure what to do, merely let out one of his hearty laughs.

"Guys..." Rennac slipped in, slithering in between the princess and king as he sat himself down on the table. "We're not getting anywhere," he sighed.

"I don't see you doing anything, besides watching tv and ordering from room service," Joshua remarked.

"Hey! I went on the tour, didn't I? I got the map, didn't I? I also scoped the place out," Rennac combated defensively.

"Then perhaps you know where the control room is?"

"Er, no..." Rennac answered quietly.

It was almost like an instant that L'Arachel and Joshua began to lash out at each other, screaming at each other while Rennac threw in personal remarks and Dolza guffawing as loudly as he could in the background to ease the tension in the room.

Marisa let out sigh.

Rarely did it end up like this. And when it did, it wasn't quite as bad as what was unfolding before her.

Walking away wouldn't help as much as she would like to, and had done before, it simply wouldn't solve anything.

They had planned to commence their operation in a week. A mistake would be costly, and in order to carry out the mission smoothly they would all have to work as a team and earn each others' trust.

So how should she do that?

She gazed around the room and her eyes landed on something particular: an USP pistol with a suppressor attached. Handy, should their enemies appear in the hotel room, but she chose to use it in an experiment. She picked up the gun, checked if there were any bullets in the barrel, then aimed the handgun towards the group, no one in particular.

Rennac was the first to noticed. Horror on his face, he immediately fled off the table and hit the ground. Follow suit, Joshua did the same. Dolza's usual cheerful face fell to a sullen bewildered expression as he stood in front of L'Arachel in defense.

"Holy shit!" Rennac exclaimed as he peaked his head from behind the bed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I knew there was something eerie about you; my intuition is never wrong!" L'Arachel pointed an a finger in accusation at her from behind Dolza.

"M-Marisa?" Joshua sounded as he too poked his head out.

_Well, I've definitely got their attention. _

"Relax," she assured as she drew the gun towards the ground. "Did you think I was actually going to shoot?"

"Well, when you aim a freakin' gun at us like that... YES," Rennac retorted as he stood up.

"I wasn't," Marisa said as she withdrew the bullets form its barrel and place it onto the second bed next to her.

"If you don't trust me when I aim a gun at you, how are we going to work together?" She asked.

The group remained silent.

"Maybe... Because... You aimed a freakin' gun at us?" Rennac outburst.

"Wait," Joshua stood up,"I understand where you're going with this," he crept over to Marisa.

"You're trying to teach us a lesson, aren't you?" He asked playfully.

Marisa shrugged, "in one way or two."

"I see. Well, she does have a point," Joshua pointed out as he turned to Rennac, L'Arachel and Dolza.

"Rennac, you and Marisa have been friends for a long time, yes? You would have trusted her to aim a gun at your direction but not shoot _you_."

"Buddy, you do not know her like I-"

"And L'Arachel," Joshua quickly cut off before Rennac could finish. "Even though you and Dolza have been with us for a short time, we all have a common goal and in order to reach that we have to work together. You would trust Marisa, or in fact, any of us if we pointed a gun at you, right?"

"Er, I suppose... What has to be done, must be done," L'Arachel responded hesitantly.

"And I," Joshua spun to face Marisa. "Now what reasons would I have to possibly trust you with a weapon in my direction?" He asked with a playful smirk Marisa knew all too well.

Of course, the irony in his question was "none" as she had tried numerous times to end his life. It's quite confusing and difficult to go from 'assassin' to, in best term, 'acquaintance' with someone who you were supposed to kill.

This irony, Marisa knew, and she could tell from his grinned lips he knew.

So how could she have responded?

She didn't.

Instead, Joshua walked by to the table. "All right guys, we have to start working together and to do that, we're gonna have to start trusting each other."

"Yeah, yeah," Rennac dismissed blandly.

"I should apologize for any inconvenience I've cause," L'Arachel started.

Marisa let her voice draw out as she let a small sigh of relief escape her lips. She peered down at the bullets laying next to the firearm.

_At least I got through to them. _

"I'm heading back," Marisa called out as she gathered her things.

"Wait!" Joshua said from behind the curtained balcony. She turned to face the man as he leaned an arm onto the door frame.

He took a puff from his cigarette and blew it out to the night sky. "Nice job today," he complimented.

Marisa shrugged. "For what?" She didn't do anything significant that would reward her a congratulatory.

Joshua took one more puff before putting the cigarette out. "You made a very important point to us. Although it was one hell of a way to do it," he muttered the last sentence as he closed the balcony door behind him.

"Oh. Anytime," she responded as she headed towards the door.

"Hey, but really," Joshua called out.

She turned to face him once again. With Joshua, she never quite knew when a conversation ended.

"Thanks." He gave a quick smile. "It really opened our eyes, or at least mine."

"It's common sense. How's a team supposed to function if they don't trust one another?" Marisa stated.

Joshua nodded his head. "Is that how you and er, your company work?"

The mention of her friends made her drop her eyes to the ground.

"Still no word, huh?" Joshua asked after seeing her sullen-like look.

She opened her mouth to begin to speak but debated whether or not she should. She didn't think sharing her theory of Grado being after her and Rennac would be beneficial with Joshua.

Deciding not to, she closed her lips, but the look on Joshua's face said otherwise. "What is it?" He asked.

"I... It's nothing."

"C'mon. What happened to that trust?" He smirked.

He had her there. She sighed. "I was discussing with Rennac earlier," she nudged her head to his direction where he laid sprawled across the bed, happily sleeping away, making soft noises every once in a while.

"I think I know who those men are... But it's just a guess."

"A guess is better than nothing."

"Yeah... I believe it's Grado."

Joshua made no movement in reaction, instead continued to stare at her. "Makes... sense," he began slowly. "They were the ones who hired you, right? If somehow they found out that you didn't do the job they hired you to do, of course they would go after you."

Marisa nodded her head. "I also think they have my boss and the other," she said quietly as she tightened her hold on her bad strap.

Joshua began to walk up to her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"We're going to get them back," he assured.

"I hope so," she sighed as she looked to the ground.

"Hey, we are." Joshua assured once again.

At that moment, she wasn't sure if it was the dead night atmosphere that surrounded them, the soft breathing of their sleeping companion in the bed over, but she believed him.

More than likely it was the strong, controlled confidence in his voice that gave her hope, the soft touch of assurance and placement on her shoulder that activated tingles throughout her body.

She couldn't quite place it, but what she did know was that she felt safe in the presence of this man she trusted.

* * *

**A/N:**

Okay, confession time.

This chapter was supposed to be longer but because I was on some sort of a deadline, I was in a rush. I'm also not that pleased with how it turned out... I think I'll come back and edit this again.

Be advised that next chapter will be longer... probably much longer.

Meep.

Hope you've enjoyed this!


	11. An Old Friend

**Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Fire Emblem. **

Enjoy!

* * *

**An Old Friend  
**

Marisa watched as Joshua blew a heavy dose of smoke into the chilly night air. The way the grey air seeped though his lips in a bundle then disperse into long trail of nothing was peculiarly beautiful to watch.

The next puff from him lasted longer. It danced in a slow and steady swirl against the bright, almost white, blue light that was the street lamp nearby. As it flew higher, it overlaid on the orange of the faraway bridge.

She craned her neck back to catch glimpses of the last trail of smoke before it completely disappeared into the pitch black sky.

It wasn't as if Joshua was doing it purposely, controlling the flow of the smoke that exited his mouth; he appeared absent-minded huffing on his cigarette. She hadn't even realized he was a smoker, though she shouldn't have been too surprised given the man's expertise of pulling one trick after another. What she did realize though, was how frequent he had been sucking on the cancerous sticks.

It started at one mere cigarette a day since they've landed in Grado. Now it was one every 10 minutes.

She figured it was from stress and anxiety they've all been carrying in this week particular.

Their operation was planned to be carried out tomorrow.

Joshua wasn't the only one that seemed to be acting abnormally: she noticed L'Arachel was quieter than usual. Sure, she still babbled irritably, but there would be prolong pauses. Her bodyguard, the hearty Dolza would get excited over the smallest events; from opening doors to throwing a used tissue in the garbage.

Rennac, who had denied he was at all nervous, did a much better job at concealing his anxiousness. He, an occasional smoker, would smoke one or two a day. He'd drink a glass of hard liquor every night before sleeping, and he would sleep a bit earlier than the rest of them.

As for Marisa? She had learned to cope with stress. She would do deep breathing exercise every night before going to sleep. She exercised daily, from jogging around the area to doing cardio workout in her hotel room.

She was her usual self, nothing had quite changed and no one asked.

If someone were to ask her though, she would expect the question:

"_are you scared?"_

And she would not lie and reply with a _"yes."_

They have gone over their plan countless times: spending over 19 hours and more a day cooped in the hotel room troubleshooting various scenarios.

It seemed their plan was fool proofed by now.

She looked over at Rennac, who stood with Joshua as they smoked, except his cigarette was doing less activity. It dangled from Rennac's lips, a faint trail of smoke sprouting from it. He didn't seemed to be doing anything in particular, but have a furrowed expression to the ground, his arms folded tightly across his chest as if he was deep in thought.

She wondered what he was thinking so hard about. It seemed at any moment, he was going to have an epiphany.

Trailing her eyes along, she looked at L'arachel who stood near her. Her usual cheery smile was visible, her eyes scanning around their surroundings, which wasn't much as they stood in the middle of a scrapyard. She hummed an unrecognized tune as she twirled a strand of hair around a finger. In her periods of silent rambling, she would substitute with humming. Some tunes Marisa recognized, others, she would have guessed L'Arachel made up.

Dolza, who stood close to L'Arachel was happily nodding his head to her humming, his hand lightly tapping against his thigh.

Marisa had never seen such loyalty between a bodyguard and his master. She could not imagine having someone breathe down your neck at every moment of the day.

Such the life that royalty led.

Though she ruled it as smothering, she quite envied Dolza's and L'Arachel's relationship. He was always there to protect her, be at her beck and call and at the same time be her companion… it almost looked like a relationship between a parent and their child.

It was a relationship she never got to share with her father, nonetheless her mother.

"I think I see them pulling up," Rennac announced.

A car pulled into the scrapyard, making a shaky entrance as it drove over the bumpy terrain between a big pile of metal. Making out its silhouette and little detail that was exposed by nearby light source, Marisa recognized the vehicle as an Escalade. The reason she knew that was because there was a brief period when Cormag had purchased the same car except with a few customizations, and would show off to the others in The Company.

The car's highbeams shone brightly at the group as a few of them rose an arm up to shield the light.

The car shut off and the drivers and passenger door opened.

Dolza let out his usual laugh, not the forced one he had let out all week at every remark one of them made, but the laughter where there was something of decency and genuine that was the cause of it.

"I haven't seen you two in a while!" He let out as he walked towards the two figures that was making their way towards them.

The one that exited from the passenger seat was a woman, Marisa would have guessed form mid-20 to early 30 of age. It was hard to tell as the woman dressed very maturely, like a secretary of a high executive, but her smooth, milky complextion and fluff like blonde hair said otherwise.

The other was a man with his grey hair slicked back and matching facial hair. His face bore a look of scrutiny that was almost intimidating to look at too long. But despite what was apparent of his age, he was well build and that showed nicely through the gray suit he wore.

"Dolza. It's been a while." The man commented as he took Dolza's hand and gave it a firm handshake.

"It really has," the woman added as she was next to shake Dolza's hand.

Still chuckling, Dolza turned to the others. "Guys, I want you to meet Duessel and Selena, the former Obsidian and Fluorspar of Grado."

* * *

"Our security is very thorough. A Grado badge along with your ID is required to be carried around at all times where it is visible. To enter rooms, you'll need to scan your cards at the door," Selena said.

"There are at least 20 people for each section of the mansion: the entrance area, the administrative area and maintance," Duessel pointed out on the map laying out on the Escalade's front hood. This map was unlike their tourist map, it was detailed from the room size to which room had electronic locks.

"Vigarde's room, along with his son's, are on the fourth floor. There are 30 people guarding that area as it is the family's part of the mansion. The second and third floors are offices. These would be where all official papers would be."

Selena sighed. "Of course, this was from 2 years ago. Who knows if they've made any changes?"

Duessel nodded, "there was never this many people guarding an area, maybe 12 or 15. But ever since… well, you know."

The group all nodded in agreement without speaking a word.

Whenever Selena spoke, her face would face scrunch up into a look of sadness. Her eyes would fall to the ground, but look as if it weren't looking at the ground, but rather the reminiscent of her king.

A sigh would escape Duessel's lips in between pauses, a look of disapproval whenever he spoke of Vigarde.

The two shared a great devotion to their country and king even though they knew of Vigarde's plan long ago, which was the reason why they've given up their post. Even no longer under the Empire, Duessel had briefly told them that he would only reveal what his oath as a Grado general allowed him to. But at the same time, the two had expressed their interest in wanting them to succeed.

"This here is the outline of their underground dungeon," Duessel laid out another map overlaying the one they had looked at. It had a completely groundwork that did looked like it would not have matched up with the other castle's floor plan. All it had were three long hallways aligned each other, all connected by another small hallway at each ends, making the whole floor plan resemble a square. There were 20 - 30 doors labeled for each hall, all lined up correspondingly to the one in front of it.

Almost simultaneously, the group gave the man and the map a puzzled look. Not in the same order, though. It appeared this was a first they had heard of any underground dungeon.

"As you should know, Grado castle has been around for a long time. It's only fitting that it keeps many aspects of its origin."

The group continued to stare at the man.

"A... dungeon?" Rennac broke the silence.

"It's not what you think," Duessel shook a hand at him. "It should be renamed 'the interrogation grounds' if anything. It's where criminals who are a threat to the political power are taken to be held and questioned.

"I see... But, what does this have anything to do with us?" Joshua inquired.

Duessel pointed a finger to a door belonging to the hallway to the right labelled '3', the very first door at the top corner. "It's not labelled on this map, but if you follow through this entrance, there's a tunnel that connects a harbour a few miles away. If anything should go wrong, this will be your escape route."

They all hovered over the map taking in what they saw before them.

"How do we get enter this underground tunnel, Sir Duessel?" L'Arachel asked as she looked up at the man.

He reached a hand up to stroke his beard. "Through secret passageways."

"Did I just hear you correctly?" Rennac ask as he shot his head up to give the ex-general an incredulous look. "Secret passageways?" He said with much emphasis on the first word.

Duessel nodded. "It's not as difficult as you think, they're laid all over the first floor," Duessel replied. "And they all lead to this middle hallway," he said as he pointed the hall laid in the middle marked '2' on it.

"But don't worry," he continued on, "these passageways are not too hard to spot out. Look for anything... out of place, if you will. And if you do find one, your id badge and fingerprints are required to be scanned."

"Jeez, I don't remember signing up for this..." Rennac quietly muttered to himself.

Joshua cleared his throat, "well, that was quite informative." He stood up as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I think we have everything. I thank you for taking the time to meet with us. I understand how hard it must be for you guys to share all of that."

"No, the pleasure is all our's, your highness," Duessel replied as he took a small bow. Selena followed suit. "I am glad you are well, same with you, Princess L'Arachel. And of course, you too Dolza."

"Well said, well said!" Dolza chuckled.

"I apologize though, for not telling you much, we are sworn to Grado even after our resignation."

"We understand," L'Arachel emphasized. "Your information is much to what we need!"

"And we do want you to succeed. And…" Selena paused, a sullen look on her face, "help Emperor Vigarde. He's not like that, I know."

She scanned the eyes of the group before, making a brief eye contact with Marisa. She saw how sad the former general was; her eyes read as if they were pleading , maybe even begging for her to stop her mad king. But not the 'stop' Marisa would define, the 'stop' as in 'help'.

"_Help. Help save him."_

"We'll do the best we can," Joshua assured.

Duessel and Selena both headed back to their adjourned seating of the car, the rest of the group stepped back to give some room for the car to drive away.

The engine came to life and the car backed up to the right, making its way to where they had entered.

Before completely disappearing into the night, Marisa got one more glimpse of Selena. The same expression laid on her face: her arched eyebrow furrowed and lips tugged into a frown. It was her eyes that were the most expressive.

Marisa could not quite place it, but she saw it as a look as genuine sadness. The way her curled eyelashes draped over her eyes and dulled the color of her eyes was doleful enough as it hid the shimmer of her emerald colored pupils.

The car drove away and was gone from their sight. The group had already started to head back to their parked vehicle nearby, but Marisa remained standing in her spot, looking past to where the two ex-generals had gone.

She stood wondering, thinking how expressive eyes could really be.

* * *

"Badge?"

"Check."

"Fake ID?"

"Check."

"I-camera?"

"Yes."

"Earpiece?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure you want to do this? Last chance to back out."

Marisa gave him an incredulous look. In return, Joshua gave his usual smirk.

_To be joking at a time like this._

"I'm going in," she dismissed as she began to exit out the vehicle.

"Wait," Joshua stopped. She turned to face him, an annoyed look on her face as she prepared for whatever nonsense he was about to throw at her.

"Just… Whatever happens," he began, "just know that I'm, um-"

She waited for him to continue. She had never seen him struggle to let out a sentence all the while averting eye contact with her. Whatever he had to say, he was having trouble getting it out.

"Uhh," Joshua groaned. "Just, I'm glad to have met you." He let out a cheeky smile as he finally returned her gaze.

She raised an eyebrow, unsure of how to respond. Whether it was the surprise of him spurting it out suddenly or the confusion of what he meant by that phase, she went with the latter. "You're talking as if something bad is going to happen."

She watched his eyes fell to the ground before making its way back up. 'Well," he sputtered, "I'm just saying _whatever _happens."

In the time Marisa had known him, she had always thought of him as a confident, optimistic man. Even in his many times of despair he never broke that playful grin that seemed to be a permanent on his face. This mission would be, to her best ability, described as their biggest hit or miss. To falter or give doubt, she would not have expected to come from Joshua, the biggest gambler she knew, the man who lived so much off risks enough to call it a religion.

If Joshua was being pessimistic in the slightest bit, where did that put her?

She was not strong enough to assume the role of the person who brought hope to the group. She was not one to feed false hope for something she herself was unsure of the outcome.

She knew that.

But she also knew that without someone to push on forward, encourage, help, and assure them that everything was going to be okay given any circumstances, they'd fall apart.

For now, she would have to fill the shoes of this 'Lady Luck' that Joshua talked about often.

She inhaled deeply, fixating her eyes on Joshua.

"And I'm saying don't jinx it."

Exiting the car, she heard Joshua's chuckle trail behind her.

She heard the whirring of the car window as it rolled down.

"Hey," Joshua called out, "good luck."

She turned her head briefly over her shoulder as she adjusted her id badge that hung from her waist.

"You too."

_We're going to need it. A lot of it._

After she was satisfied with the placement of her badge, she went to fix her hair. She tightened the hair tie that secured her blonde locks that fashioned in a straight tail down her back.

She had observed the guards of Grado: many had a clean cut image even if they all did wear the same black suits.

To make herself look less inconspicuous, she had gotten herself a pair of un-prescribed glasses, giving her a somewhat 'bookworm' appearance.

Rennac thought he was fine, and had Identity Change to thank for the haircut and spectacles. For Joshua, he was to remove all of his proudly worn piercings and slick his mop for a hair back for a neater and professional appearance.

Marisa would only hope they were acceptable for Grado's image.

She exited the alley where she and Joshua had parked and looked to her left, where Grado castle stood just down the street in all its grandeur.

She had seen other castles before, all of them spectacular and colossal, but upon gazing the building, she felt this was possibly the biggest.

Her eyes never left the castle as she made her way towards it.

_Big, for more groundwork. _

She had nearly bumped into a pedestrian for not paying attention to where she was going.

_Big, for more rooms. _

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw man carrying a stack of what appeared to be boxes, exit from the store she was about to pass by. She stopped and waited for him to pass by.

"Thank you," the man quickly said as he quickly glided by.

_Big, for more people._

She was nearing it. She didn't stare at anything in particular; her eyes would float from objects to objects of the exterior of castle. There was a window, maybe 12 feet wide on the fourth floor but its curtains were draped, shielding what was inside.

_Big, for more security._

She felt her chest tighten up.

_Big, for intimidation._

She was craning her neck by now as she stopped and stood in place.

A flag of Grado laid at the very top of the castle and she could see part of it fluttering in the cool breeze.

There was a sound. It sounded a like a voice but it was to muffled to tell what was said.

"Ma'am?"

She blinked and shot her eyes down to the person in front of her.

She recognized the man's outfit as one of Grado's security then realized she was at the front gate of Grado castle.

"If you want to get in, you gotta scan your badge," the man chuckled, humorous at her daze.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." She took her id badge and ran it over the scanning machine of the booth.

The man watched the screen of the computer, all the while, Marisa watched him, waiting for any indication that she had gotten through.

Two beeps sounded and the gates automatically opened.

The man nodded as a sign for her to enter and she in return nodded back.

She made her way through the front yard, towards the front door. Keeping her composure, she let out a small sigh of relief. There were two cameras hung just above the door, on both sides. One of the camera swung in her direction, making a whirring sound as it zoomed in on her.

There were two more men that stood by the front door with the same scanning machine by the front gates. Only difference would be she would have to walk through a full body metal detection machine.

She had repeated the previous step of scanning her badge, then proceeded to take her shoes, watch, glasses and earrings off and dumping them in a box.

One of the men took the box and ran it through another machine of its own. Simultaneously, she slowly walked through the machine just as the box went through the small machine.

After the procedure had gone smoothly, they gave her the 'ok' and let her in, all without muttering a word.

She had stepped through the doors and stood in place as she placed her belongings back on. She had finished screwing her silver studded earrings back on when she immediately heard L'Arachel's voice.

"Everything was to their liking, I take it?"

Marisa reached a hand up to scratch behind an ear, making her glasses move up and down in its place.

"Excellent."

The technology was quite impressive, it was possibly more advanced than anything she had seen from Knoll or Saleh. The hearing aids they were using was claimed the smallest and most sensitive in the world, as that had been proved.

The device was all build into the small rounded stud, and while you did not need to place it directly in your ears, it would transfer the voice of whoever was on the other end into vibrations that travel through the hair of your ear. It was the same as having a standard ear pierce, but possibly more clearer and louder.

For cameras, there was a build-in micro-bug in the frame of her glasses that shows whoever was watching exactly what Marisa saw.

In Joshua's and Rennac's case, since piercings were refrained to be on men, their hearing devices were built at the end of their glasses. As for communication between both parties, a microphone was build into the glasses frame.

They had it planned so that Marisa was the one who retrieved all necessary documents that revealed Emperor Vigarde's plans in obtaining a bloodied throne.

Having Joshua even set foot in Grado's castle was risky enough; there was a high chance of somebody recognizing him as the dead King of Jehanna. If it were up to Marisa, she would have seated Joshua back in the hotel with L'Arachel and Dolza and have her and Rennac do the 'dirty' work. But as much to their pleasing, Joshua insisted he went. He had also gone as far as to mention a secret protection training he was part of after his mother's death, but he didn't care to elaborate too much on it.

Joshua and Rennac would act as lookout while Marisa rendezvous in the office area. Dolza, back at the hotel would survey Joshua and Rennac and walk them through if any situation should arise.

That would leave L'Arachel to walk Marisa through in obtaining information as much to her displease.

Marisa was not the first person their group had considered to play the important role. Rennac was very skillful in this area. What stopped him was the sexist rule that women were to work in offices.

"_So Marisa is it then."_

No questions were asked, no concerns arose, as if everyone had assumed that she would do a flawless job.

That's what scared her the most.

What if she didn't?

Not that this mission was any different from all her other missions, the stakes were the same: her life.

_Oh, that's right. _

There was Joshua's. Rennac. L'Arachel and Dolza.

Four people all depending on her.

It was perhaps one too many, but she didn't like being the person to be relied on. She couldn't handle the mentality of it. She couldn't handle the responsibility of being accountable if… something should happen.

"Make a left at the end of this hallway." L'Arachel instructed.

L'Arachel seemed to have more confidence though, as she should as she would stay up to the wee morning hours studying everything there was to know about Grado's castle.

"The conference room is the fifth door to the right."

Marisa could hear the princess was confident. There was a refreshing twang in her voice that was missing during their planning stage, but now it was back. At first, Marisa had expected L'Arachel to engage in her usual incessant ramblings but so far she had proved to be professional, in speaking when she needed to.

Making her way down the hallway, she took notice of every camera she passed by, making quick wisps at them. There seemed to be one at every corner and turn.

She was at the third door down when she noticed another hallway to her left, it wasn't as long as the one she was currently walking on, maybe 20 feet.

There were no doors along the sides, just one door at the end with a camera over it. But it wasn't aimed at the door or directly in front of the door should anyone or anything enter it.

It was aimed about 10 feet away from the door at the wall to the right.

Odd that was.

She tucked that at the back of her head as she continued her stride towards the conference room.

Duessel and Selena had mentioned that after entering, all workers were to proceed to the conference room where there were specific tasks assigned to every worker.

Another courtesy through Rennac's connection, an advanced hacker named Artur was able to access Grado's first level computer system and add Marisa's, Rennac's and Joshua's fake persona into the system. There were over 600 workers registered into the system, what was three more?

The thought had occurred to them that if he was skillful enough to get through Grado's computer, he would be able to find any documents as well. He had attempted, but as soon as he tried to fight through the second level of Grado's system, which were the security files, his computer had completely shut down, erasing his hard-drive.

Feeling quite bad for Artur's dismay, Joshua offered doubled his expenses.

Marisa entered the room. As she expected, there was not much in the room except for 5 computer screens screwed to the wall and a scanner underneath each of them. At the back there seated a woman at a desk who looked quite involved in the stack of paper sitting in front her of.

"Head over to any computer and scan you badge through. Your name and job should appear."

Marisa did just that. She anticipated for how the screen would show up as, though it should work as she had gotten in.

_Amery Walt – Filing Cabinet. Rm. 2b-135_

She made sure her glasses was in view of what the screen had appeared as without looking too suspicious.

"Great!" L'Arachel chirped. "As we had planned. That room isn't just any office room. It contains every tax and contract document Emperor Vigarde has ever signed. So the level of security is very high there. Not that you should worry; it's the same procedure as before but with more cameras monitoring the place."

If everything went according to plan, there would be nothing to worry about.

The steps as Marisa had imprinted in her mind went as:

Go in. Plant a sticky device near any cameras that watches her. L'Arachel presses a button that loops recorded footage. That would give her the opportunity to find hard evidence on paper that proves Emperor Vigarde murderous activities. Then walk out.

"_Should be easy enough."_

Easier said than done was more like it.

"Head to the elevator to the right. It's quicker that way," L'Arachel instructed. "Dolza has just informed me that Rennac is on the second floor and Joshua has just entered the castle with ease."

She blinked and felt her shoulders sag a bit as she let out a silent sigh of relief.

"You're doing great, Marisa. I wish I could say that to the other two. You guys are just halfway there."

_Halfway?_

What they had managed to accomplish was getting into the castle safely. The hard work was yet to come.

Although, getting through Grado's security was supposedly the hardest part Marisa had thought once, but that had been proven otherwise. If they were able to get through without any trouble then perhaps the next step wouldn't be too hard.

In manner of speaking, they _were_ halfway done.

She stood up straighter, shoulders stiffed back and her head held high and upright.

They could do this. _She _could do this.

_Just halfway there. _

"Excuse me?"

Just as she was exiting the room, the small voice of the woman at the back called out. Marisa spun around to face her to clarify if she meant to call out to her.

She was. Though she should have expected it as she was the only one in the room.

"You're… Amery Walt, yes?" The woman asked, taking a look at her computer screen to confirm Marisa's identity.

She nodded once.

"Hm… I see," the woman said as she continued to stare at the computer.

"I… wonder what she wants," L'Arachel spoke, confused of the situation.

Marisa shared the same confusion, except she held her tongue between her front teeth, awaiting for the woman to continue.

"Ah!" She exclaimed. "I forgot to change your assignment, but you're going down to interrogation to help Andy and Lars."

"…W-what?" was what she could say.

"What?" L'Arachel repeated, excepted more dragged on.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I should have notified you earlier, but they really want you down there."

"Um ,"L'Arachel began. "Tell her… no! Ask her why you're needed. And then say that you have some work to do that needs to be done today."

Marisa cleared her voice with a small cough. "Why do I have to be down there?"

The woman shrugged. "I got an email from Lars saying he wants you to help him. And he mentioned that it was urgent."

"Oh… Help him?" Marisa inquired.

The woman shrugged again. "I don't know what goes on down there."

"Ask her if it'll take long," L'Arachel spoke.

"Will it take long?" Marisa repeated.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask Andy, he's right behind you."

Marisa spun around and was faced with a dark skinned man a head taller than her. He had bright red hair that slicked back in quite a messy way that a few strands stuck out. And like her, he wore a similar black suit. In contrast to her stoic expression, he wore a rather impatient look with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What's taking you so long?"

His voice was gruff and spoke in a serious tone.

"Sorry! I forgot to tell her before she came in!" The woman quickly apologized, although his question seemed to be directed at Marisa.

He disregarded her answer and left the room, muttering "follow me."

"Oh my, oh my," L'Arachel sounded as Marisa trailed behind the man. "He's not interrogating you, do you think?"

Marisa looked off to the side. But she had entered the castle without any trouble. Was there something that had thrown her off? Perhaps they found out her identity was a fake.

No.. The woman had mentioned that they wanted her to help them.

"This… changes everything…"

Marisa could hear L'Arachel was faltering in her confidence.

They had hit a snag in their mission; it was not the end of it. Perhaps what they needed her for would not take too long. Perhaps it wouldn't even affect their plans.

Perhaps, just maybe.

They turned in the hallway Marisa had passed by earlier, with the one door at the end and the camera facing the odd direction.

The man stopped midway from the end of the hallway, making Marisa almost stumble into him. He pounded on the wall to the right twice then lightly kicked it once.

"What is he…?" L'Arachel questioned.

The area on the wall where he had hit swiped down, exposing a computer screen.

_Ah._

One of the secret entrances Duessel had mentioned. Of course it was obvious: a hallway with a camera facing nothing but a wall. However, given Grado's infamous status of being the strongest on the continent, Marisa had figured they would have done at least a better job at concealing their secret entracnes.

The man placed his hand on the screen when it had asked for fingerprints. Then he ran his badge over the scanner underneath it.

After a beep, the screen rotated to the left, revealing a stairway downwards.

Without even glancing at her, he made his way down. Marisa followed behind him, giving them more than enough space between them.

The stairwell was wide and made of complete stonework. Some of the stones were darker than others and chipped, as if the entire stairwell had been around for a long time. Along the sides hung clutches that seemed to have been made to hold torches, but instead there were light bulbs. Very dimmed light bulbs, at that.

_An underground dungeon. _

As soon as she thought that, a shiver travelled up her spine. It was enough that she was travelling down a poorly lit empty stairwell with a man she did not know, but her destination was to a place where severing limbs was once a form of interrogation. Of course, that was the past and the art of interrogation have modernized to become more merciful to humanity's standard.

But, in the line of business Marisa comes from, she knows that there was always someone who had no limit and did whatever they could to get what they want. That person would have no doubt resorting to our ancestors' way.

She had been involved in many interrogations, many of which she was the interrogator. Her way, to what everyone in The Company commented as, was straightforward.

Joshua, as she had learned, liked to play games. Rennac and Colm liked to play the bad cop, good cop routine when they worked together and Tethys, in Marisa's eyes was a master. On a mission they had worked on together, Marisa had watched Tethys easily obtain the security code to a national bank from the bank owner itself! Tethys used her looks to her full advantage. And it wasn't just her looks that played a part in her act; with her sweet talk, she was able to reveal Marisa's otherwise feelings to their boss.

Admittedly, Marisa had thought Gerik as more than her boss at one point and Tethys caught her.

Such an embarrassment moment that Marisa refused to recall.

Shaking off the tingle that seemed to leave an aftershock down her back, Marisa wondered just how Grado conducted their interrogation?

The echo of their footsteps was only heard for the past 3 or so minutes they have walked. Telling from what she could see in the lowly lit stairwell, they were not getting to the end anytime soon.

A thought had occurred to her as the _tap tap, tap tap, _continued.

It was only their footsteps that she had been listening to since they've entered the stairwell.

She reached a hand up to clamp her right earring together in case it had somehow dislodged and stopped working temporarily. Then the left earring.

Nothing.

It was quiet.

L'Arachel would have been asking questions, instructing her, possibly muttering to the gods at this point. Why was she so quiet?

Perhaps… because they were travelling underground, reception had been lost. But Lute, the person who they had purchased the technology from, had claimed her devices had quality reception anywhere, anyplace.

Then maybe there was a cancelling device that was interfering with her's.

Marisa took another careful look at her surroundings but found nothing. Instead, they were finally reaching the ground.

They came down to a hallway; it seemed to be equal in lengths on both sides, 30 to 40 feet long. There some doors along the wall and some entrances to stairways going up, though the placement of both seemed to be random as there would be 3 doors going in a row, a stairway, a door and 2 stairways. The hallway still carried the same aspect as the stairwell in stonework and lightbulbs. Only the doors was apparent in being the only renovated piece of item amongst the centuries years old dungeon. If Duessel was right with the information he had provided, she was in the middle hallway of the underground basement.

The man named Andy turned to the right, strutting his shoulders.

"We captured this gang a couple of weeks ago," he finally spoke, but with the same roughness as before.

"Two of their friends disappeared on them and we wanna know where they are."

"…And?" Marisa questioned after he was silent.

"And that's all you need to know," he quickly retorted.

She already did not like this man.

They reached the end of the hallway and made another right, enclosing into a corner. When they rounded, Marisa was met with another hallway, same in length but different in it had all doors running along its wall. There was a big sign hung at the top that read '1'. Duessel did not go into great detail in what each hall contained, only in hall 3 did it had the tunnel to their emergency escape route.

"So what part do I have to contribute?" Marisa continued to further questioning.

"We're going to give you an earpiece and feed you questions to ask the guy, and responses if he choose to respond. He's the… bratty bitch of the bunch," Andy snarled.

"I see," Marisa responded. "So why does it have to be me that helps you?"

Her question had made Andy stop in place and turn to face her. "Look, I don't know if you know a thing on how interrogations work,"

_Yes._

"but these bastards, they're locked up being yelled at by us. They're grumpy, agitated so they're not gonna talk. They see a girl, it eases them. If you're the one asking questions, maybe they'll talk."

"Oh," Marisa nodded her head, pretending this was new information to her.

"Don't flatter yourself," Andy scoffed as he quickly gave Marisa a full body scan with his eyes. "We had more than a dozen women come down the past week and they still haven't talked. I don't expect any more than a blink from him." He turned and continued walking.

"But we have to use everyone…" The man muttered to himself in annoyance.

Marisa narrowed her eyes at the man retreating away from her.

She _really _did not like this guy.

They finally reached a door and behind it was the other man she assumed to be Lars.

He was the complete opposite to Andy; he was much slim, wore glasses with thick black frames that stood out against his pale complexion and baby like face. His long brunette hair was tied back in a low ponytail that dangled down his back.

"Hello Amery, a pleasure," Lars quickly greeted in a soft voice as he stood to shake Marisa hand. "If you would please, I would like you to wear this in your right ear so I can communicate with you." He handed her a small black earpiece that fitted in her ear nicely.

She watched him press a couple of buttons on a complex machine that took up a quarter of the small room.

The room was filled with mostly machines; 3 computer screens that showed the next room over which could be seen through what Marisa would assume, the one way mirror. She looked over and was able to see a slumped figure sitting at the table.

"Please step out and I will signal you when you are able to enter the room," Lars said as Andy abruptly brushed her out of the room.

"Do not worry about the man, he is constrained. As long as you do not get too close to him, you will be fine," Lars' voice sounded.

Not knowing how to respond, she nodded her head, looking up and down the hall to her right and left.

It was more than likely behind every door of this hallway was an interrogation room. She tried to put together the denotation of all of it: the middle hallway was the entrance from the first floor. First hallway are interrogation rooms. Third is the tunnel to the harbor, along with what?

"Please proceed in," Lars interrupted her train of thought.

She reached for the silver colored doorknob and turned it, opening the door into the room.

The room was small like the previous one, albeit a little bigger.

Though, it could've been because there was only a table and two chairs in this room, giving it more free space.

The man sat across from her at the door. He was wearing what appeared to be a gray jumpsuit with gray sneakers. His legs were constrained with chains that tied his legs to the leg of the chair that was screwed permanently to the ground. His arms were handcuffed by a long chain enough so that he could stretch his arms, but were tied around his chair.

He sat with his body slumped over the small wooden table, his head resting lazily on one fist but his face was to the ground so all Marisa could see was a tussle of navy blue hair.

Navy blue hair that looked eerily familiar.

Eerily familiar in the sense that she had not heard from Gerik and the others for a while, familiar in the sense that she had come to a frightening discovery a week ago.

The door shut behind her with a _clack _and the man looked up at her.

He looked at her with the very same eyes as someone she knew. Squinted, but widen in curiosity, just like his nature to know everything that's going on around him. A pointed nose pointed in her direction and his usual devious smirk split by his lips in slightly open gape.

She had no doubt it was him, she had wished it wasn't.

She shared the same expression but with more suppression of her surprise.

Taking in a deep breath, she softly spoke his name.

"Colm."

* * *

**A/N:**

Ahh! I really wanted to continue on but for the sake of keeping this chapter short, I stopped (also because I like leaving cliff hangers. Tee hee).

I hope you've enjoyed the read.


	12. Chapter 12

lalala, currently going under some changes.

I promise to have the whole story up within a week. Until then, go about life.

Sincerely, Pline.


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